As a student in Cambridge, D'Arcy Thompson was first a sizar, then received a scholarship. He also translated Hermann Müller's work on the fertilization of flowers, to earn money on the side, and because it appealed to him. It was published in 1883 with an introduction by Charles Darwin. He speculated later, that if he had chosen to translate Wilhelm Olbers Focke's hybridization of flowers, he "might have anticipated the discovery of Mendel by twenty years". He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Natural Science in 1883.