Self-Fertilization

1. Reproductive Assurance

1.1. Pre-Mendelian Observations

1.1.1. Darwin’s Experiments

Before anyone knew what a gene was, naturalists and breeders had a strong working knowledge of the effects of inbreeding. Charles Darwin, in his characteristically obsessive fashion, spent over a decade meticulously documenting these effects in plants. His 1876 book, The Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom, is a monument to experimental design, showing that the offspring of cross-pollination were almost always more vigorous than the offspring of self-pollination.

In one of his most extensive experiments, Darwin worked with the morning glory, Ipomoea purpurea, for eleven years, raising ten generations of self-pollinated and