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 crossed plants always withstood the injurious effects of being
suddenly removed into the open air after having been kept in the
greenhouse better than did the self-fertilised. On several occasions
they also resisted much better cold and intemperate weather. This was
manifestly the case with some crossed and self-fertilised plants of
Ipomoea, which were suddenly moved from the hothouse to the coldest part
of a cool greenhouse. The offspring of plants of the eighth
self-fertilised generation of Mimulus crossed by a fresh stock, survived
a frost which killed every single self-fertilised and intercrossed plant
of the same old stock. Nearly the same result followed with some crossed
and self-fertilised plants of Viola tricolor. Even the tips of the
shoots of the crossed plants of Sarothamnus scoparius were not touched
by a very severe winter; whereas all the self-fertilised plants were
killed halfway down to the ground, so that they were not able to flower
during the next summer. Young crossed seedlings of Nicotiana withstood a
cold and wet summer much better than the self-fertilised seedlings. I
have met with only one exception to the rule of crossed plants being
hardier than the self-fertilised: three long rows of Eschscholtzia
plants, consisting of crossed seedlings from a fresh stock, of
intercrossed seedlings of the same stock, and of self-fertilised ones,
were left unprotected during a severe winter, and all perished except
two of the self-fertilised. But this case is not so anomalous as it at
first appears, for it should be remembered that the self-fertilised
plants of Eschscholtzia always grow taller and are heavier than the
crossed; the whole benefit of a cross with this species being confined
to increased fertility.
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