Hermann Müller (botanist)
Heinrich Ludwig Hermann Müller (23 September 1829 – 25 August 1883) was a German botanist who provided important evidence for Darwin's theory of evolution.
Career
Müller was an early investigator of coevolution.[1]p27 He was the author in 1873 of Die Befruchtung der Blumen durch Insekten, a book translated at the suggestion of Darwin in 1883 as The Fertilisation of Flowers.[2] He and Darwin corresponded—36 letters between the two, or from Darwin concerning Müller, are recorded.[3] Darwin cited him extensively in The Descent of Man for his information relating to the behavior of bees.
Hermann was the brother of Fritz Müller,[1]p29 the German doctor who lived in Santa Catarina, Southern Brazil and researched its natural history. Fritz Müller wrote the first book in support of Darwinian evolution in German,"Für Darwin"; he is also known as the discoverer of Müllerian mimicry. The work of both brothers was well known to Darwin.[1]
Selected publications
- Die Befruchtung der Blumen (The Fertilisation of Flowers, 1883) [Translated by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson with a Preface by Charles Darwin]
References
- Thompson J. N. 1994. The Coevolutionary Process. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-79760-0
- Müller H. 1883. The Fertilisation of Flowers. Macmillan, London. Translated by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson.
- Brummitt, R.K.; C.E. Powell (1992). Authors of Plant Names. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. ISBN 1-84246-085-4.