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
Several flowers on the self-fertilised grandchildren of Hero in Table
2/16 were fertilised with pollen from the same flower; and the seedlings
raised from them (great-grandchildren of Hero) formed the ninth
self-fertilised generation. Several other flowers were crossed with
pollen from another grandchild, so that they may be considered as the
offspring of brothers and sisters, and the seedlings thus raised may be
called the INTERCROSSED great-grandchildren. And lastly, other flowers
were fertilised with pollen from a distinct stock, and the seedlings
thus raised may be called the COLCHESTER-CROSSED great-grandchildren. In
my anxiety to see what the result would be, I unfortunately planted the
three lots of seeds (after they had germinated on sand) in the hothouse
in the middle of winter, and in consequence of this the seedlings
(twenty in number of each kind) became very unhealthy, some growing only
a few inches in height, and very few to their proper height. The result,
therefore, cannot be fully trusted; and it would be useless to give the
measurements in detail. In order to strike as fair an average as
possible, I first excluded all the plants under 50 inches in height,
thus rejecting all the most unhealthy plants. The six self-fertilised
thus left were on an average 66.86 inches high; the eight intercrossed
plants 63.2 high; and the seven Colchester-crossed 65.37 high; so that
there was not much difference between the three sets, the
self-fertilised plants having a slight advantage. Nor was there any
great difference when only the plants under 36 inches in height were
excluded. Nor again when all the plants, however much dwarfed and
unhealthy, were included. In this latter case the Colchester-crossed
gave the lowest average of all; and if these plants had been in any
marked manner superior to the other two lots, as from my former
experience I fully expected they would have been, I cannot but think
that some vestige of such superiority would have been evident,
notwithstanding the very unhealthy condition of most of the plants. No
advantage, as far as we can judge, was derived from intercrossing two of
the grandchildren of Hero, any more than when two of the children were
crossed. It appears therefore that Hero and its descendants have varied
from the common type, not only in acquiring great power of growth, and
increased fertility when subjected to self-fertilisation, but in not
profiting from a cross with a distinct stock; and this latter fact, if
trustworthy, is a unique case, as far as I have observed in all my
experiments.]
SUMMARY ON THE GROWTH, VIGOUR, AND FERTILITY OF THE SUCCESSIVE
GENERATIONS OF THE CROSSED AND SELF-FERTILISED PLANTS OF Ipomoea
purpurea, TOGETHER WITH SOME MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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