The Effects of Cross & Self-Fertilisation in the Vegetable KingdomDarwin, Charles
Science
The Effects of Cross & Self-Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom
Darwin, Charles
Fertilization of plants; Plants -- Variation; Pollination
The average height of the six crossed plants is here 62.91, and that of
the six self-fertilised 55.31 inches; or as 100 to 88. There was not
much difference in the fertility of the two lots; the crossed plants
having produced in the greenhouse thirty-five pods, and the
self-fertilised thirty-two pods.
Seeds were saved from the self-fertilised flowers on these two lots of
plants, for the sake of ascertaining whether the seedlings thus raised
would inherit any difference in growth or vigour. It must therefore be
understood that both lots in the following trial are plants of
self-fertilised parentage; but that in the one lot the plants were the
children of plants which had been crossed during two previous
generations, having been before that self-fertilised for many
generations; and that in the other lot they were the children of plants
which had not been crossed for very many previous generations. The seeds
germinated on sand and were planted in pairs on the opposite sides of
four pots. They were measured, when fully grown, with the following
result:--
TABLE 5/56. Lathyrus odoratus.
Heights of plants measured in inches.
Column 1: Number (Name) of Pot.
Column 2: Self-fertilised Plants from Crossed Plants.
Column 3: Self-fertilised Plants from Self-fertilised Plants.
Pot 1 : 72 : 65.
Pot 1 : 72 : 61 4/8.
Pot 2 : 58 : 64.
Pot 2 : 68 : 68 2/8.
Pot 2 : 72 4/8 : 56 4/8.
Pot 3 : 81 : 60 2/8.
Pot 4 : 77 4/8 : 76 4/8.
Total : 501 : 452.
The average height of the seven self-fertilised plants, the offspring of
crossed plants, is 71.57, and that of the seven self-fertilised plants,
the offspring of self-fertilised plants, is 64.57; or as 100 to 90. The
self-fertilised plants from the self-fertilised produced rather more
pods--namely, thirty-six--than the self-fertilised plants from the
crossed, for these produced only thirty-one pods.
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