RECORD: Darwin, C. R. 1877. [Letter to Anton Kerner, 1876]. Notes. Nature 15 (1 February): 305.
REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed and edited by John van Wyhe 6.2020. RN1
NOTE: See record in the Freeman Bibliographical Database, enter its Identifier here.
Darwin's 20 November 1876 letter to the Austrian botanist Anton Kerner von Marilaun (1831-1898), partly printed here, differs somewhat in wording from the text of the original letter. It was retranslated from the German translation which appeared in Adolph Pichler, Ein Österreichischer Botaniker. Neue Freie Presse (5 January): 2 (F2546), for inclusion in Nature. The original is published in Correspondence vol. 30. With thanks to Samantha Evans for helpful information about the letter.
Kerner had sent Darwin a copy of his Die Schutzmittel der Blüthen gegen unberufene Gäste, 1876. See Darwin's annotated copy in CUL-DAR139.15.1. Darwin later contributed a prefatory letter to the English translation Flowers and their unbidden guests. With a prefatory letter by Charles Darwin, M.A., F.R.S. The translation revised and edited by W. Ogle, M.A., M.D. London: C. Kegan Paul, 1878, is available in Darwin Online as F1318.
[page] 305
PROF. ANTON KERNER, author of the "Means of Protection in Flowers against Unwelcome Visitors" (NATURE, vol. xv. p. 237), has lately received from Charles Darwin the following characteristic epistle:—"Allow me to express to you my heartiest thanks for the pleasure experienced in reading your work. You have opened up an entirely new field of research, and explained many things which were previously enigmas to me. I find that I have fallen into many mistakes, in the preparation of my last book, when touching upon the subject which you have considered so fully."
Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
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