To Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener [before 27 January 1863]1
Few facts in vegetable physiology are more remarkable than the well-ascertained influence of the pollen of one species or variety on the seed and fruit of another species or variety whilst still attached to the female plant. There are several old accounts, and the case has been well proved by Gärtner of the colour of the pea in one variety of the Garden Pea, being changed by the direct action of the pollen of another differently-coloured variety.2 So, again, the famous St. Valery Apple tree produces many different kinds of fruit, according to the nature of the pollen used; for the singularly-constructed flowers yield no pollen, and they are annually fertilised by a party of French girls, who bring pollen from other trees, and mark with ribbons the flowers thus fertilised.3 About a year ago Mr. Beaton gave an analogous case, far more remarkable than any hitherto recorded, for he showed (if my memory does not deceive me) that the pollen of one species acted on the footstalk of the seed-capsule of another species, and caused it slowly to assume a position which it would not otherwise have acquired.4 I forget the name of the plant, and have vainly spent an hour in trying to find the passage, though I am sure I marked it. Will Mr. Beaton have the kindness to repeat the statement? and I am sure it is worth repetition.5 If he grant this favour, will he inform us whether his observations were made on several flowers, and during one or more years? I remember some difficulty in finding the name of the plant in such catalogues as I happened to have at hand, which led me to suppose that it had, like too many plants, more names than one.—
Charles Darwin.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Beaton, Donald. 1860. Crossing flowers. Cottage Gardener 24: 253–5.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Gärtner, Karl Friedrich von. 1849. Versuche und Beobachtungen über die Bastarderzeugung im Pflanzenreich. Mit Hinweisung auf die ähnlichen Erscheinungen im Thierreiche, ganz umgearbeitete und sehr vermehrte Ausgabe der von der Königlich holländischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Stuttgart: E. Schweizerbart.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Remarks on the influence of pollen of one species or variety on the seed and fruit of another while still attached to the female plant. Refers to a remarkable case previously given by D. Beaton and asks whether Beaton will repeat the details.
[CD’s letter is followed by notes by D. Beaton in which he answers CD’s question, dissociating himself from some of his remarks, and in particular denying C. F. v. Gärtner’s claim that colour of one variety of pea can be changed by the direct action of the pollen of a different variety.]
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3951
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Journal of Horticulture
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener n.s. 4 (1863): 70
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3951,” accessed on 23 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3951.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 11