The Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom

Charles Darwin

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511694202

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.

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The Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom

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Contents

Frontmatter
pp i-ii

Contents
pp iii-viii

CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
pp 1-27

CHAPTER II - CONVOLVULACEÆ
pp 28-62

CHAPTER III - SCROPHULARIACEÆ, GESNERIACEÆ, LABIATÆ, ETC
pp 63-97

IV - CRUCIFERÆ, PAPAVERACEÆ, RESEDACEÆ, ETC
pp 98-141

CHAPTER V - GERANIACEÆ, LEGUMINOSÆ, ONAGRACEÆ, ETC
pp 142-187

CHAPTER VI - SOLANACEÆ PRIMULACEÆ, POLYGONEÆ, ETC
pp 188-237

CHAPTER VII - SUMMARY OF THE HEIGHTS AND WEIGHTS OF THE CROSSED AND SELF-FERTILISED PLANTS
pp 238-284

CHAPTER VIII - DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CROSSED AND SELF-FERTILISED PLANTS IN CONSTITUTIONAL VIGOUR AND IN OTHER RESPECTS
pp 285-311

CHAPTER IX - THE EFFECTS OF CROSS-FERTILISATION AND SELF-FERTILISATION ON THE PRODUCTION OF SEEDS
pp 312-355

CHAPTER X - MEANS OF FERTILISATION
pp 356-414

CHAPTER XI - THE HABITS OF INSECTS IN RELATION TO THE FERTILISATION OF FLOWERS
pp 415-435

CHAPTER XII - GENERAL RESULTS
pp 436-470

INDEX
pp 471-482

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