RECORD: Darwin, C. R. [1878].06.27-29. Mimosa albida / Draft of Cross and self fertilisation. CUL-DAR209.2.128-129. Edited by John van Wyhe (Darwin Online, http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed by Christine Chua and edited by John van Wyhe 5.2023. RN1
NOTE: See record in the Darwin Online manuscript catalogue, enter its Identifier here. Reproduced with permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library and William Huxley Darwin. The volume CUL-DAR209.2 contains materials on circumnutation of leaves and stems for Darwin's book Movement in plants (1880). Draft is in the hand of Ebenezer Norman with corrections by Darwin. The text of the draft corresponds to Cross and self fertilisation, pp. 404-5.
[128 and 129]
June 1878 Mimosa albida
circumnutation of main petiole.
[figure]
[129v]
88
699
Chap. E 10
as the late Dr. Crüger informed me from actual observation in the West Indies, and as Delpino has inferred with much acuteness from the structure of the parts.*(8) (*Ult. Osservaz. Dicogamia 1868-69, p. 188).
Mr. Farrer has also shown*(9) (Nature 1874 p. 169) that the flowers of Coronilla are curiously modified, so that bees may fertilise them whilst sucking some matter secreted from the outside of the calyx. It further appears highly probable from the observations of the Rev. W.A. Leighton, that the fluid so abundantly secreted by glands on the phyllodia of the Australian Acacia magnifica, which stand near the flowers, is connected with their fertilisation.*(10)
The amount of pollen produced by anemophilous plants, and the distances to which it is often transported by the wind, are both surprisingly great.
Mr. Hassall found that the weight of the pollen produced by a single plant of the Bulrush (Typha) was 144 grains. Buckets-full of pollen, chiefly of
Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
File last updated 25 July, 2023