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Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882

"The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species"


When, however, any one form of Oxalis is fertilised illegitimately with pollen
from the same form, the seedlings appear to belong invariably to this form. Thus
Hildebrand states that long-styled plants of O. rosea growing by themselves have
been propagated in Germany year after year by seed, and have always produced
long-styled plants. (5/6. 'Ueber den Trimorphismus in der Gattung Oxalis:
Monatsberichte der Akad. der Wissen. zu Berlin' 21 June 1866 page 373 and
'Botanische Zeitung' 1871 page 435.) Again, 17 seedlings were raised from mid-
styled plants of O. hedysaroides growing by themselves, and these were all mid-
styled. So that the forms of Oxalis, when illegitimately fertilised with their
own pollen, behave like the long-styled form of Lythrum salicaria, which when
thus fertilised always produced with me long-styled offspring.]
PRIMULA.
Primula Sinensis.
I raised during February 1862, from some long-styled plants illegitimately
fertilised with pollen from the same form, twenty-seven seedlings. These were
all long-styled. They proved fully fertile or even fertile in excess; for ten
flowers, fertilised with pollen from other plants of the same lot, yielded nine
capsules, containing on an average 39.75 seeds, with a maximum in one capsule of
66 seeds. Four other flowers legitimately crossed with pollen from a legitimate
plant, and four flowers on the latter crossed with pollen from the illegitimate
seedlings, yielded seven capsules with an average of 53 seeds, with a maximum of
72.


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