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
As I wished to ascertain, firstly, whether those self-fertilised plants
of the last generation, which greatly exceeded in height their crossed
opponents, would transmit the same tendency to their offspring, and
secondly, whether they possessed the same sexual constitution, I
selected for experiment the two self-fertilised plants marked A and B in
Pot 3 in Table 6/85, as these two were of nearly equal height, and were
greatly superior to their crossed opponents. Four flowers on each plant
were fertilised with their own pollen, and four others on the same
plants were crossed with pollen from one of the crossed plants growing
in another pot. This plan differs from that before followed, in which
seedlings from crossed plants again crossed, have been compared with
seedlings from self-fertilised plants again self-fertilised. The seeds
from the crossed and self-fertilised capsules of the above two plants
were placed in separate watch-glasses and compared, but were not
weighed; and in both cases those from the crossed capsules seemed to be
rather less numerous than those from the self-fertilised capsules. These
seeds were planted in the usual manner, and the heights of the crossed
and self-fertilised seedlings, when fully grown, are given in Tables
6/86 and 6/87.
The seven crossed plants in the first of these two tables average 95.25,
and the seven self-fertilised 79.6 inches in height; or as 100 to 83. In
half the pots a crossed plant, and in the other half a self-fertilised
plant flowered first.
We now come to the seedlings raised from the other parent-plant B.
TABLE 6/87. Nicotiana tabacum (third generation). Seedlings from the
self-fertilised plant B in pot 3, Table 6/85, of the last or second
generation.
Heights of plants measured in inches.
Column 1: Number (Name) of Pot.
Column 2: From Self-fertilised Plant, crossed by a Crossed Plant.
Column 3: From Self-fertilised Plant again self-fertilised, forming the
third Self-fertilised generation.
Pot 1 : 87 2/8 : 72 4/8.
Pot 1 : 49 : 14 2/8.
Pot 2 : 98 4/8 : 73.
Pot 2 : 0 : 110 4/8.
Pot 3 : 99 : 106 4/8.
Pot 3 : 15 2/8 : 73 6/8.
Pot 4 : 97 6/8 : 48 6/8.
Pot 5 : 48 6/8 : 81 2/8.
Pot 5 : 0 : 61 2/8.
Total : 495.50 : 641.75.
The seven crossed plants (for two of them died) here average 70.78
inches, and the nine self-fertilised plants 71.3 inches in height; or as
100 to barely 101. In four out of these five pots, a self-fertilised
plant flowered before any one of the crossed plants. So that,
differently from the last case, the self-fertilised plants are in some
respects slightly superior to the crossed.
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