The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same SpeciesDarwin, Charles
Science
The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species
Darwin, Charles
Fertilization of plants; Heterostylism; Plant physiology; Plants -- Variation; Pollination
The existence of plants which have been rendered heterostyled is a highly
remarkable phenomenon, as the two or three forms of the same undoubted species
differ not only in important points of structure, but in the nature of their
reproductive powers. As far as structure is concerned, the two sexes of many
animals and of some plants differ to an extreme degree; and in both kingdoms the
same species may consist of males, females, and hermaphrodites. Certain
hermaphrodite cirripedes are aided in their reproduction by a whole cluster of
what I have called complemental males, which differ wonderfully from the
ordinary hermaphrodite form. With ants we have males and females, and two or
three castes of sterile females or workers. With Termites there are, as Fritz
Muller has shown, both winged and wingless males and females, besides the
workers. But in none of these cases is there any reason to believe that the
several males or several females of the same species differ in their sexual
powers, except in the atrophied condition of the reproductive organs in the
workers of social insects. Many hermaphrodite animals must unite for
reproduction, but the necessity of such union apparently depends solely on their
structure. On the other hand, with heterostyled dimorphic species there are two
females and two sets of males, and with trimorphic species three females and
three sets of males, which differ essentially in their sexual powers. We shall,
perhaps, best perceive the complex and extraordinary nature of the marriage
arrangements of a trimorphic plant by the following illustration. Let us suppose
that the individuals of the same species of ant always lived in triple
communities; and that in one of these, a large-sized female (differing also in
other characters) lived with six middle-sized and six small-sized males; in the
second community a middle-sized female lived with six large- and six small-sized
males; and in the third, a small-sized female lived with six large- and six
middle-sized males. Each of these three females, though enabled to unite with
any male, would be nearly sterile with her own two sets of males, and likewise
with two other sets of males of the same size with her own which lived in the
other two communities; but she would be fully fertile when paired with a male of
her own size. Hence the thirty-six males, distributed by half-dozens in the
three communities, would be divided into three sets of a dozen each; and these
sets, as well as the three females, would differ from one another in their
reproductive powers in exactly the same manner as do the distinct species of the
same genus. But it is a still more remarkable fact that young ants raised from
any one of the three female ants, illegitimately fertilised by a male of a
different size would resemble in a whole series of relations the hybrid
offspring from a cross between two distinct species of ants. They would be
dwarfed in stature, and more or less, or even utterly barren.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account