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
Twelve short-styled flowers were in this instance castrated, and afterwards
fertilised legitimately with pollen from the long-styled form; and they produced
seven fine capsules. These included on an average 7.6 seeds, but of apparently
good seed only 4.3 per capsule. At three separate times nearly a hundred flowers
were fertilised illegitimately with their own-form pollen, taken from separate
plants; and numerous other flowers were produced, many of which must have
received their own pollen. From all these flowers on the seventeen short-styled
plants only fifteen capsules were produced, of which only eleven contained any
good seed, on an average 4.2 per capsule. As remarked in the case of the long-
styled plants, some even of these capsules were perhaps the product of a little
pollen accidentally fallen from the adjoining flowers of the other form on to
the stigmas, or transported by Thrips. Nevertheless the short-styled plants seem
to be slightly more fertile with their own pollen than the long-styled, in the
proportion of fifteen capsules to three; nor can this difference be accounted
for by the short-styled stigmas being more liable to receive their own pollen
than the long-styled, for the reverse is the case. The greater self-fertility of
the short-styled flowers was likewise shown in 1861 by the plants in my flower-
garden, which were left to themselves, and were but sparingly visited by
insects.
On account of the probability of some of the flowers on the plants of both
forms, which were covered under the same net, having been legitimately
fertilised in an accidental manner, the relative fertility of the two legitimate
and two illegitimate unions cannot be compared with certainty; but judging from
the number of good seeds per capsule, the difference was at least in the ratio
of 100 to 7, and probably much greater.
Hildebrand tested my results, but only on a single short-styled plant, by
fertilising many flowers with their own-form pollen; and these did not produce
any seed. This confirms my suspicion that some of the few capsules produced by
the foregoing seventeen short-styled plants were the product of accidental
legitimate fertilisation. Other flowers on the same plant were fertilised by
Hildebrand with pollen from the long-styled form, and all produced fruit. (3/2.
‘Botanische Zeitung’ January 1, 1864 page 2.)
The absolute sterility (judging from the experiments of 1861) of the long-styled
plants with their own-form pollen led me to examine into its apparent cause; and
the results are so curious that they are worth giving in detail. The experiments
were tried on plants grown in pots and brought successively into the house.
FIRST.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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