To G. J. Romanes 26 March 1881
Down, | Beckenham, Kent.
Mar 26. 1881
My dear Romanes,
You are very plucky about Pangenesis, and I much wish that you could have any success. I do not understand your scheme.1 Do you intend to operate on an ovarium with a single ovule, and to bisect it after being fertilised? I should fear that this was quite hopeless. If you intend to operate on ovaria with many seeds, whether before or after fertiln. I do not see how you could possibly distinguish any effect from the union of the two ovaria. Any operation before fertilisation would I presume quite prevent the act; for very few flowers can be fertilised if the stem is cut & placed in water. Gärtner however says that some Liliaceæ can be ferted. under these circumstances.2
If Hooker is correct, he found that cutting off or making a hole into the summit of the ovarium and then inserting pollen caused the fertilisn of the ovules. This has always stretched my belief to the cracking point. I think he has published a notice on this experiment but forget where; and I think it was on Papaver. Dyer could probably tell you about it.3 Perhaps yr plan is to remove of the ovarium of a one-seeded plant and join it on to the ovary of another of a distinct var with its ovule removed; but this would be a frightfully difficult operation
I am very sorry to hear about your ill success with cats, & I wish you could get some detailed account of the Belgian trials4
Yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Gärtner, Karl Friedrich von. 1844. Versuche und Beobachtungen über die Befruchtungsorgane der vollkommeneren Gewächse und über die natürliche und künstliche Befruchtung durch den eigenen Pollen. Pt 1 of Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Befruchtung der vollkommeneren Gewächse. Stuttgart: E. Schweizerbart.
Summary
Discusses difficulties involved in plant experiment designed to test Pangenesis.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-13098
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- George John Romanes
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.586)
- Physical description
- LS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13098,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13098.xml