Darwin's Backyard by James T. Costa

Author:James T. Costa
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

“Legitimate” and “Illegitimate” crosses between long-styled “pin” and short-styled “thrum” Primula veris flowers. Redrawn from Darwin (1877), p. 27, by Leslie C. Costa.

In the meantime, with Gray’s help Darwin confirmed heterostyly in Partidgeberry (Mitchella repens), a creeping evergreen common in eastern North America and a nineteenth-century favorite for yuletide decoration. This woodland plant bears small paired white tubular flowers in the leaf axils, giving rise in fall to a single bright red berry formed by the fusion of the two carpels. Gray also had his student Joseph Trimble Rothrock make observations and experimental crosses on the common bluet (Houstonia caerulea), confirming another case. When Darwin’s attention was drawn to common flax, genus Linum, his son William assisted by posting over 200 specimens from the Isle of Wight. This interesting case warranted yet another paper for the Linnean Society.

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