The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species by Charles Darwin

Author:Charles Darwin [Darwin, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781411439689
Publisher: Barnes and Noble, Inc.
Published: 2017-02-03T00:00:00+00:00

Plant 8. This plant was allowed to be freely fertilised in 1864 by legitimate and illegitimate plants of the other two forms, and ten capsules yielded on an average 41·1 seeds, with a maximum of 73 and a minimum of 11. Hence this plant produced only 44 percent of the full complement of seeds.

Plant 9. This long-styled plant was allowed in 1865 to be freely fertilised by illegitimate plants of the other two forms, most of which were moderately fertile. Fifteen capsules yielded on an average 57·1 seeds, with a maximum of 86 and a minimum of 23. Hence the plant yielded 61 percent of the full complement of seeds.

Plant 10 This long-styled plant was freely fertilised at the same time and in the same manner as the last. Ten capsules yielded an average of 44·2 seeds, with a maximum of 69 and a minimum of 25; hence this plant yielded 47 percent of the full complement of seeds.

The nineteen long-styled plants of the third lot, of the same parentage as the last lot, were treated differently; for they flowered during 1867 by themselves so that they must have been illegitimately fertilised by one another. It has already been stated that a legitimate long-styled plant, growing by itself and visited by insects, yielded an average of 21·5 seeds per capsule, with a maximum of 35; but, to judge fairly of its fertility, it ought to have been observed during successive seasons. We may also infer from analogy that, if several legitimate long-styled plants were to fertilise one another, the average number of seeds would be increased; but how much increased I do not know; hence I have no perfectly fair standard of comparison by which to judge of the fertility of the three following plants of the present lot, the seeds of which I counted.

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