The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species · Charles Darwin
[PLANT 18.
This mid-styled plant, when freely and legitimately fertilised during 1865 by illegitimate plants descended from self-fertilised long-, short-, and mid-styled plants, yielded an average from ten capsules of 102.6 seeds, with a maximum of 131 and a minimum of 63: hence this plant did not produce quite 80 per cent of the normal number of seeds. Twelve flowers were artificially and legitimately fertilised with pollen from a legitimate long-styled plant, and yielded from nine capsules an average of 116.1 seeds, which were finer than in the previous case, with a maximum of 135 and a minimum of 75; so that, as with Plant 17, pollen from a legitimate plant increased the fertility, but did not bring it up to the full standard. This mid-styled plant, fertilised in the same manner and at the same period as the last, yielded an average from ten capsules of 73.4 seeds, with a maximum of 87 and a minimum of 64: hence this plant produced only 56 per cent of the full number of seeds. Thirteen flowers were artificially and legitimately fertilised with pollen from a legitimate long-styled plant, and yielded ten capsules with an average of 95.6 seeds; so that the application of pollen from a legitimate plant added, as in the two previous cases, to the fertility, but did not bring it up to the proper standard.
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