The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species / by Charles Darwin.

  • Darwin Charles, 1809-1882.
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species / by Charles Darwin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    The pistil in the long-styled flowers is longer by abont a rpiarter of its length, and the stamens shorter in abont the same pro- Ijortion, than the corresi)onding organs in the short-styled flowers. In the latter the anthers are longer, and the divergent stigmas decidedly longer and apparently thinner than in the long-styled form. Owing to the state of the specimens, I conkl not decide whether the stigmatic papillte were longer in the one form than in the other. The pollen-grains, distended with water, from the short-styled flowers were to those from the long- styled as 100 to 78 in diameter, as deduced from the mean of ten measurements of each kind. Hedtotis [sp. ?] (Eubiace^). Fritz Muller sent me from St. Catharina, in Brazil, dried flowers of a small delicate species, which grows on wet sand near the edges of fresh-water pools. In the long-styled form the stigma projects above the corolla, and stands on a level with the jn-o- jecting anthers of the short-styled form; but in the latter the stigmas stand rather beneath the level of the anthers in the other or long-styled form, these being enclosed within the tube of the corolla. The pistil of the long-styled form is nearly thrice as long as that of the short-styled, or, speaking strictly, as 100 to 39; and the papillte on the stigma of the former are broader, in the ratio of 4 to 3, but whether longer than those of the short-styled, I could not decide. In the short-styled form, the anthers are rather larger, and the pollen-grains are to those from the long-styled flowers, as 100 to 88 in diameter. Fritz Muller sent me a second, small-sized species, which is likewise heterostyled. COCCOCYPSELUM [SP. ?] (EuBIACE.®). Fritz Muller also sent me dried flowers of this plant from St. Catharina, in Brazil. The exserted stigma of the long-styled form stands a little above the level of the exserted anthers of the short-styled form; and the enclosed stigma of the latter also stands a little above the level of the enclosed anthers in the long- styled form. The pistil of the long-styled is about twice as long as that of the short-styled, with its two stigmas considerably longer, more divergent, and more curled. Fritz Muller informs