It appears (17/75. Duvernoy quoted by Gartner 'Bastarderzeugung' s. 334) that
certain flowers on certain plants of Lilium candidum can be fertilised more
freely by pollen from a distinct individual than by their own. So, again, with
the varieties of the potato. Tinzmann (17/76. 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1846 page
183.), who made many trials with this plant, says that pollen from another
variety sometimes "exerts a powerful influence, and I have found sorts of
potatoes which would not bear seed from impregnation with the pollen of their
own flowers would bear it when impregnated with other pollen." It does not,
however, appear to have been proved that the pollen which failed to act on the
flower's own stigma was in itself good.
In the genus Passiflora it has long been known that several species do not
produce fruit, unless fertilised by pollen taken from distinct species: thus,
Mr. Mowbray (17/77. 'Transact. Hort. Soc.' volume 7 1830 page 95.) found that
he could not get fruit from P. alata and racemosa except by reciprocally
fertilising them with each other's pollen; and similar facts have been
observed in Germany and France. (17/78. Prof. Lecoq 'De la Fecondation' 1845
page 70; Gartner 'Bastarderzeugung' s. 64.) I have received two accounts of P.
quadrangularis never producing fruit from its own pollen, but doing so freely
when fertilised in one case with the pollen of P. coerulea, and in another
case with that of P. edulis. But in three other cases this species fruited
freely when fertilised with its own pollen; and the writer in one case
attributed the favourable result to the temperature of the house having been
raised from 5 deg to 10 deg Fahr. above the former temperature, after the
flowers were fertilised. (17/79. 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1868 page 1341.) With
respect to P. laurifolia, a cultivator of much experience has recently
remarked (17/80. 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1866 page 1068.) that the flowers
"must be fertilised with the pollen of P. coerulea, or of some other common
kind, as their own pollen will not fertilise them." But the fullest details on
this subject have been given by Messrs. Scott and Robertson Munro (17/81.
'Journal of Proc. of Linn. Soc.' volume 8 1864 page 1168. Mr. Robertson Munro
in 'Trans. Bot. Soc.' of Edinburgh volume 9 page 399.): plants of Passiflora
racemosa, coerulea, and alata flowered profusely during many years in the
Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh, and, though repeatedly fertilised with their own
pollen, never produced any seed; yet this occurred at once with all three
species when they were crossed together in various ways. In the case of P.
coerulea three plants, two of which grew in the Botanic Gardens, were all
rendered fertile, merely by impregnating each with pollen of one of the
others. The same result was attained in the same manner with P. alata, but
with only one plant out of three. As so many self-sterile species of
Passiflora have been mentioned, it should be stated that the flowers of the
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