The ovaries of some plants develop sometimes into seed-less fruits as the result of inter-specific pollination. Taking much interest in this phenomenon, the author has studied the behaviour of the pollen tubes in this case with certain kinds of plants.
1) First, the ovaries of egg plants could be grown into seed-less fruits when they were stimulated by the pollen of
Petunia violacea, but they failed to do so when the pollen of tomatoes was substituted. When the tube growth of these pollen grains in the styles of egg plants was measured, it was found that the pollen tube growth of
Petunia had been faster than those of the tomato (s. Tab. 1).
2) The ovaries of squashes were easily stimulated by the pollen of
Calystegia japonica but they received little influence from pollen grains of the common sunflower. Then the germination and tube growth of these pollen grains were compared. The pollen of
C. japonica germinated easily on the stigmas of squashes and penetrated deep into their styles. The pollen of the sunflower, however, almost failed to germinate on the stigmas of the squash, and when they should germinate the growth of their tubes was very poor in the styles of the latter (s. Tab. 5).
3) The pollen grains of
P. violacea have able to stimulate the pistils of egg plants as above stated, but they did not do so in the case of the pistils of
Solanum Gilo. Then the tube growth of the pollen of
P. violacea in the styles of these kinds of pistils were measured. The results showed that the pollen tubes grew faster in the styles of egg plants and slower in the styles of
S. Gilo (s. Tab. 2).
4) The germination of the
Petunia pollen was tested in several artificial media. It was found that the germination percentage of the pollen was much higher in the media containing the stylar juice of the egg plant and much lower in that containing the juice of
S. Gilo.
5) The tube growth of the
Petunia pollen in the grafted pistils were measured. The pollen tubes grew faster in the styles of
S. Gilo grafted upon the ovaries of egg plants and much slower in those grafted upon the ovaries of their own plants (s. Tab. 4).
These results may be safely concluded as follows: (a) When the pollen tubes were able to penetrate deep into the style, they made the ovary develop into a seed-less fruit. (b) When the pollen tubes were inhibited in their growth in the style, they failed to stimulate the ovary to develop into a seed-less fruit. (c) The growth of pollen tubes seems to be influenced by some special substances in the style. (d) These special substances seem to the author to be produced originally in the ovary and then go up to the upper portion of the pistil as far as the egg plant and
S. Gilo are concerned.
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