Describes experiments to test the fertility of Abutilon, which appears self-sterile,
and briefly mentions dichogamy in Eschscholzia.
Itajahy, Sa. Catharina, Brazil,
Octr. 18. 1869.
My dear Sir
I received some weeks ago your kind letter of July 18
I have been trying lately a new series of experiments on our
self-impotent Abutilon. During the winter (from April to August) all
my plants, though continuing to flower, had become quite sterile even
with pollen from distinct plants. In the meantime one of the two
plants, which I supposed to be mutually sterile, had been destroyed by
an inundation of the Itajahy, so that I have been prevented from
trying by more experiments the exactness of this supposition.— All
my plants are descending from seeds of the same pod. Now among them is
one, which is distinguished by pale flowers, by longer styli exserted
before the expanding of the corolla and by much smaller stigmas. The
pollen of this plant fertilizes the flowers of the others; but it has
hitherto not yet yielded a single ripe pod. When fertilized with own
pollen, the whole flowers fall off, as do those of the other plants,
whilst when fertilized with pollen of a distinct plant, only the
corolla falls off and the germen begins to swell a little; but in from
5 to 15 days the young pods are dropped. (they w
Of the Eschscholtzia, raised last year from your seed, a single plant has survived; it is now flowering profusely since the beginning of Septbr., but shows only a few very poor pods, of which probably none will produce good seeds. In february or March I had sown some of the Eschscholtzia seeds, which you have sent me this year, but in consequence of the unfavourable weather, they did not germinate, the rest, sown in July, are growing well, but as yet far from flowering.— I hear from Prof. Hildebrand that in Hypecoum littorale, as in Eschscholtzia, only crossed flowers are producing well developed seed-capsules.
I think, I told you already, that all the seedlings from a longstyled white Oxalis (O. Martiana Zucc., as I hear from Kew) legitimately fertilized with pollen of the long stamens of a midstyled plant are either longstyled or midstyled, without a single short-styled plant. Of 15 plants, which are now flowering, 10 are longstyled and 5 midstyled.—
Of the monstrous Begonia mentioned in a former letter, I raised numerous seedlings; some are now beginning to expand their first flowers, but only one of these has inherited the monstrosity of the parent-plant, the rest bearing normal male flowers.—
In one of your letters you called my attention on perennial Passiflora. I have in consequence planted several species into my garden; only 2 have as yet flowered, & these are self-sterile. In one species the first flowers, which appeared after transplantion, had contabescent anthers.
As to the fertilization of Passiflora, Delpino thinks in
his interesting ``Ulteriori osservazioni sulla Dicogamia'',
which I rec
- f1 6943.f1See letter to Fritz Müller, 18 July .
- f2 6943.f2See letter to Fritz Müller, 18 July  and n. 5.
- f3 6943.f3Müller refers to Abutilon striatum (redvein Indian mallow). The endemic species was later named A. darwinii (see Cross and self fertilisation, pp. 333--4).
- f4 6943.f4For Müller's earlier work on self-sterility and crossing in orchids, see Correspondence vol. 15, letter from Fritz Müller, 1 April 1868.
- f5 6943.f5CD had sent seeds of Eschscholzia californica (California poppy) with his letters of 30 January  and 3 April ; Müller had obtained seven plants from these seeds (see Correspondence vol. 16, letter from Fritz Müller, 9 September 1868 and n. 11).
- f6 6943.f6Müller may refer to seeds of Eschscholzia californica sent by CD with his letter of 3 April  (Correspondence vol. 16). CD sent more seeds of E. californica shortly after his letter of 14 March 1869 (see letter from Fritz Müller, 15 June 1869).
- f7 6943.f7Friedrich Hildebrand reported his observations on self-sterility in Hypecoum and Eschscholzia in his paper `Ueber die Bestäubungsvorrichtungen bei den Fumariaceen' (On the contrivances for pollination in the Fumariaceae; Hildebrand 1870). In this paper H. procumbens and H. grandiflorum are the species discussed. No letter from Hildebrand on this subject before October 1869 has been found.
- f8 6943.f8Oxalis martiana is now O. latifolia. This is probably the species that Müller first described to CD in 1867 (see Correspondence vol. 15, letter from Fritz Müller, 17 July 1867 and n. 4).
- f9 6943.f9See letter from Fritz Müller, 14 March 1869.
- f10 6943.f10The last two paragraphs of the letter are reproduced from a copy that was enclosed with the letter to T. H. Farrer, [27 November 1869]. See Correspondence vol. 15, letter to Fritz Müller, 2 November 1867 and n. 13.
- f11 6943.f11See Delpino 1868--75, 1: 172.