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
Mr. Scott has arrived at some interesting results by crossing other heterostyled
species of Primula. (2/18. ‘Journal of the Linnean Society Botany’ volume 8 1864
page 93 to end.) I have already alluded to his statement, that in four instances
(not to mention others) a species when crossed with a distinct one yielded a
larger number of seeds than the same species fertilised illegitimately with its
own-form pollen, though taken from a distinct plant. It has long been known from
the researches of Kolreuter and Gartner, that two species when crossed
reciprocally sometimes differ as widely as is possible in their fertility: thus
A when crossed with the pollen of B will yield a large number of seeds, whilst B
may be crossed repeatedly with pollen of A, and will never yield a single seed.
Now Mr. Scott shows in several cases that the same law holds good when two
heterostyled species of Primula are intercrossed, or when one is crossed with a
homostyled species. But the results are much more complicated than with ordinary
plants, as two heterostyled dimorphic species can be intercrossed in eight
different ways. I will give one instance from Mr. Scott. The long-styled P.
hirsuta fertilised legitimately and illegitimately with pollen from the two
forms of P. auricula, and reciprocally the long-styled P. auricula fertilised
legitimately and illegitimately with pollen from the two forms of P. hirsuta,
did not produce a single seed. Nor did the short-styled P. hirsuta when
fertilised legitimately and illegitimately with the pollen of the two forms of
P. auricula. On the other hand, the short-styled P. auricula fertilised with
pollen from the long-styled P. hirsuta yielded capsules containing on an average
no less than 56 seeds; and the short-styled P. auricula by pollen of the short-
styled P. hirsuta yielded capsules containing on an average 42 seeds per
capsule. So that out of the eight possible unions between the two forms of these
two species, six were utterly barren, and two fairly fertile. We have seen also
the same sort of extraordinary irregularity in the results of my twenty
different crosses (Tables 2.14 to 2.18), between the two forms of the oxlip,
primrose, and cowslip. Mr. Scott remarks, with respect to the results of his
trials, that they are very surprising, as they show us that “the sexual forms of
a species manifest in their respective powers for conjunction with those of
another species, physiological peculiarities which might well entitle them, by
the criterion of fertility, to specific distinction.”
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