Prev | Current Page 317 | Next

Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882

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

So that the usual rule of
illegitimately fertilised long-styled plants tending much more strongly than
short-styled plants to reproduce their own form here holds good. The
illegitimate plants derived from both forms flowered later than the legitimate,
and were to the latter in height as 69 to 100. But as these illegitimate plants
were descended from parents fertilised with their own pollen, whilst the
legitimate plants were descended from parents crossed with pollen from a
distinct individual, it is impossible to know how much of their difference in
height and period of flowering, is due to the illegitimate birth of the one set,
and how much to the other set being the product of a cross between distinct
plants.]
CONCLUDING REMARKS ON THE ILLEGITIMATE OFFSPRING OF HETEROSTYLED TRIMORPHIC AND
DIMORPHIC PLANTS.
It is remarkable how closely and in how many points illegitimate unions between
the two or three forms of the same heterostyled species, together with their
illegitimate offspring, resemble hybrid unions between distinct species together
with their hybrid offspring. In both cases we meet with every degree of
sterility, from very slightly lessened fertility to absolute barrenness, when
not even a single seed-capsule is produced. In both cases the facility of
effecting the first union is much influenced by the conditions to which the
plants are exposed.


Pages:
305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329