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 six crossed plants here average 2.91, and the six self-fertilised
1.33 inches in height; so that the former were more than twice as high
as the latter, or as 100 to 46.
In the spring of the succeeding year (1869) the three crossed plants in
Pot 1 had all grown to nearly a foot in height, and they had smothered
the three little self-fertilised plants so completely that two were
dead; and the third, only an inch and a half in height, was dying. It
should be remembered that these plants had been bedded out in their
pots, so that they were subjected to very severe competition. This pot
was now thrown away.
The six plants in Pot 2 were all alive. One of the self-fertilised was
an inch and a quarter taller than any one of the crossed plants; but the
other two self-fertilised plants were in a very poor condition. I
therefore resolved to leave these plants to struggle together for some
years. By the autumn of the same year (1869) the self-fertilised plant
which had been victorious was now beaten. The measurements are shown in
Table 5/59.
TABLE 5/59. Pot 2.--Sarothamnus scoparius.
Heights of plants measured in inches.
Column 1: Crossed Plants.
Column 2: Self-fertilised Plants.
: 15 6/8 : 13 1/8.
: 9 6/8 : 3.
: 8 2/8 : 2 4/8.
The same plants were again measured in the autumn of the following year,
1870.
TABLE 5/60. Pot 2.--Sarothamnus scoparius.
Heights of plants measured in inches.
Column 1: Crossed Plants.
Column 2: Self-fertilised Plants.
: 26 2/8 : 14 2/8.
: 16 4/8 : 11 4/8.
: 14 : 9 6/8.
Total : 56.75 : 35.50.
The three crossed plants now averaged 18.91, and the three
self-fertilised 11.83 inches in height; or as 100 to 63. The three
crossed plants in Pot 1, as already shown, had beaten the three
self-fertilised plants so completely, that any comparison between them
was superfluous.
The winter of 1870-1871 was severe. In the spring the three crossed
plants in Pot 2 had not even the tips of their shoots in the least
injured, whereas all three self-fertilised plants were killed half-way
down to the ground; and this shows how much more tender they were. In
consequence not one of these latter plants bore a single flower during
the ensuing summer of 1871, whilst all three crossed plants flowered.
Ononis minutissima.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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