Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- In botany, unable to fertilize itself with its own pollen: said of a flower or a plant.
Etymologies
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Examples
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With plants, so far is cultivation from giving a tendency towards sterility between distinct species, that in several well-authenticated cases already alluded to, certain plants have been affected in an opposite manner, for they have become self-impotent whilst still retaining the capacity of fertilising, and being fertilised by, other species.
IX. Hybridism. Fertility of Varieties When Crossed, and of Their Mongrel Offspring, Not Universal 1909
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Cases nearly similar to those observed by Scott were recorded by Gartner and Kolreuter, but in these instances only certain individuals were self-impotent.
More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2 Charles Darwin 1845
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