To Daniel Oliver [12 April 1863]1
Down Bromley Kent
Sunday
Dear Oliver
It is a shame to trouble, but will you tell me whether ovule of Primula is “anatropal” nearly as figured by Gray p. 123 Lessons of Botany.—or rather more tending to “amphitropal”.—2 I never looked at such a point before. Why I am curious to know is because I put pollen into ovarium of monstrous Primroses, & now after 16 days, & not before, (the length of time agrees with slowness of natural impregnation) I find abundance of pollen-tubes emitted, which cling firmly to ovules & I think I may confidently state penetrate the ovule; but here is odd thing they never once enter at (what I suppose to be) the “orifice” but generally at c the chalaza, when they fall.—3
Do you know how pollen-tubes go naturally in Primula? do they run down walls of ovarium & then turn up the placenta & so debouch near the “orifices” of ovules?
If you thought it worth while to examine ovules, I would see if there are more monstrous flowers & put pollen into ovarium & send you the flowers in 14 or 15 days afterwards. But it is rather troublesome, I would not do it unless you cared to examine the ovules. Like a foolish & idle man I have wasted a whole morning over them.—
When does Hooker return?4
Yours most sincerely | C. Darwin
One line in answer would suffice—
In 2 ovules there was an odd appearance as if the outer coat of ovule at the chalaza end (if I understand the ovule) had naturally opened, or withered, where most of the pollen tubes seemed to penetrate which made me at first think this was a widely open foramen.5 I wonder whether the ovules would could be thus fertilised!
Footnotes
Bibliography
Desmond, Ray. 1994. Dictionary of British and Irish botanists and horticulturists including plant collectors, flower painters and garden designers. New edition, revised with the assistance of Christine Ellwood. London: Taylor & Francis and the Natural History Museum. Bristol, Pa.: Taylor & Francis.
Marginalia: Charles Darwin’s marginalia. Edited by Mario A. Di Gregorio with the assistance of Nicholas W. Gill. Vol. 1. New York and London: Garland Publishing. 1990.
ML: More letters of Charles Darwin: a record of his work in a series of hitherto unpublished letters. Edited by Francis Darwin and Albert Charles Seward. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1903.
Treub, Melchior. 1891. Sur les Casuarinées et leur place dans le Système naturel. Annales du Jardin Botanique de Buitenzorg 10: 145–231.
Summary
Working on monstrous Primula. Is ovule anatropous as Asa Gray says, or amphitropous? Does he know natural path of pollen tubes in Primula. Can the tube enter the ovule by the chalaza?
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4083
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Daniel Oliver
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 261.10: 46 (EH 88206029)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4083,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4083.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 11