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
Flowers of this bush were sent me from St. Catharina in Brazil, by Fritz Muller,
and were named for me at Kew. They appeared at first sight grandly heterostyled,
as the stigma of the long-styled form projects far out of the corolla, whilst
the anthers are seated halfway down within the tube; whereas in the short-styled
form the anthers project from the corolla and the stigma is enclosed in the tube
at nearly the same level with the anthers of the other form. The pistil of the
long-styled is to that of the short-styled as 100 to 60 in length, and the
stigmas, taken by themselves, as 100 to 55. Nevertheless, this plant cannot be
heterostyled. The anthers in the long-styled form are brown, tough, and fleshy,
and less than half the length of those in the short-styled form, strictly as 44
to 100; and what is much more important, they were in a rudimentary condition in
the two flowers examined by me, and did not contain a single grain of pollen. In
the short-styled form, the divided stigma, which as we have seen is much
shortened, is thicker and more fleshy than the stigma of the long-styled, and is
covered with small irregular projections, formed of rather large cells. It had
the appearance of having suffered from hyperthrophy, and is probably incapable
of fertilisation. If this be so the plant is dioecious, and judging from the two
species previously described, it probably was once heterostyled, and has since
been rendered dioecious by the pistil in the one form, and the stamens in the
other having become functionless and reduced in size. It is, however, possible
that the flowers may be in the same state as those of the common thyme and of
several other Labiatae, in which females and hermaphrodites regularly co-exist.
Fritz Muller, who thought that the present plant was heterostyled, as I did at
first, informs me that he found bushes in several places growing quite isolated,
and that these were completely sterile; whilst two plants growing close together
were covered with fruit. This fact agrees better with the belief that the
species is dioecious than that it consists of hermaphrodites and females; for if
any one of the isolated plants had been an hermaphrodite, it would probably have
produced some fruit.]
RUBIACEAE.
This great natural family contains a much larger number of heterostyled genera
than any other one, as yet known.
Mitchella repens.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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