The Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom

by Charles Darwin

Overview

Darwin's impetus for the experiments of which the results are recorded in this book was 'a mere accidental observation; and indeed it required the accident to be repeated before my attention was thoroughly aroused to the remarkable fact that seedlings of self-fertilised parentage are inferior, even in the first generation, in height and vigour to seedlings of cross-fertilised parentage'. After eleven years of meticulous experimentation and observation, described in this volume, he was ready to publish in 1876 the detailed study which he regarded as a companion volume to his 1862 On the Various Contrivances by which British and Foreign Orchids are Fertilised by Insects. His 'first and most important of the conclusions which may be drawn ... is that cross-fertilisation is generally beneficial, and self-fertilisation injurious': this understanding is of course the basis of all modern plant breeding programmes.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940000749210
Publisher:	B&R Samizdat Express
Publication date:	12/01/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Date of Birth:

February 12, 1809

Date of Death:

April 19, 1882

Place of Birth:

Shrewsbury, England

Place of Death:

London, England

Education:

B.A. in Theology, Christ¿s College, Cambridge University, 1831

Table of Contents

1. Introductory remarks; 2. Convolvulacaea; 2. Scrophulariaceae, Gesneriaceae, Labiatae, etc.; 4. Cruciferae, Papaveraceae, Resedaceae, etc.; 5. Geraniaceae, Leguminosae, Onagraceae, etc.; 6. Solanaceae, Primulaceae, Polygoneae, etc.; 7. Summary of the heights and weights of the crossed and self-fertilised plants; 8. Difference between crossed and self-fertilised plants in constitutional vigour and in other respects; 9. The effects of cross-fertilisation and self-fertilisation on the production of seeds; 10. Means of fertilisation; 11. The habits of insects in relation to the fertilisation of flowers; 12. General results; Index.