Polyembryony

Abstract

IN connection with the note in the last number of NATURE on the above, I think it should be known that the phenomenon was incidentally observed some two years ago in the red beet (Beta rubra) by the late Mr. Romanes and myself. We found that a single seed might produce as many as four distinct plants, and as far as our observations went, polyembryony was quite the normal condition. It seems to be more characteristic of the Gymnosperms than the Angiosperms, and has of course been investigated in the former, and in the latter among the Monocotyledons (Tretjakow) and Dicotyledons (e.g. Citrus-Strasburger). The fact of its occurring in such a common type as B. rubra should, I think, be taken advantage of by some botanist, as the results could not fail to be both interesting and important. Tretjakow's discovery that the supernumerary embryos in Monocotyledons may be produced by the antipodal cells, certainly suggests his comparison between such embryos and those produced by [parthenogenetic?] apogamy on the prothallia of the lower plants.