Pharmaceutical Journal, p. 324 (March 16, 1901)

FERTILISATION AND THE NUMBER OF POLLEN-GRAINS

Observations made by C. Correns on the impregnation, chiefly of Mirabilis jalapa and M. longiflora, favour the view that there is an advantage in the application to the stigma of a number of pollen-grains. In M. jalapa it was found that there is only, on the average, about one functional to four funtionless pollen-grains, and that out of three ovules only two are functional. In M. longiflora there was one functional to about three functionless pollen-grains, and a nearly equal number of functional and functionless ovules. If the stigma is pollinated with a large number of pollen-grains, the progeny is heavier and stronger, from the co-operation of functional pollen-grains with one another. The quicker the pollen-grain makes its way through the style, the stronger are the resulting seeds and seedlings.—Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell., 18, 422.