Abstract
The phenomenon of male sterility received ample recognition at the hands of many early students of sex in plant kingdom and eversince both taxonomists and evolutionists have shown their interest in such associated problems as those dealing with the mode of reproduction and breeding structure of a plant group or the diversity of floral patterns and their teratism. Gärtner (1844) and Darwin (1890) had frequently encountered the occurrence of contabescent anthers in several members of the families Caryophyllaceae, Ericaceae and Liliaceae. This anomalous character was attributed a definite role in the evolution of dioecism which is an obligate crossfertilizing adaptation in amphimictic species. Since then a vast amount of literature recording cases of sex reversal, sex suppression and other types of male sterility has accumulated.
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© 1959 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Jain, S.K. (1959). Introduction. In: Male Sterility in Flowering Plants. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-2829-0_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-2829-0_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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