Study of Euryale ferox SALISB. VI. Cleistogamous versus Chasmogamous Flowers

Abstract

1. The majority of Euryale flowers are cleistogamous, but the production of chasmogamous flowers is not excluded.
2. The chasmogamous flowers open themselves on the water surface for two or three days, and sink under water for some period subsequently until the fruit is about to ripen, when they reappear on the water surface. The cleistogamous flowers behave in a similar way, except that they do not open their sepals and petals.
3. The fertilization of the cleistogamous flowers seems to take place before the flower buds appear on the water surface. In the chasmogamous, the same is probable, but the development of the embryo is far more advanced in the cleistogamous flowers than in the chasmogamous.
4. The chasmogamous as well as the cleistogamous flower set seeds equally completed.