8G HETEROSTYLED DIMORPHIC PLANTS. Chap. IIL 



seeds, but of apparently good seed only 4.3 per cap- 

 sule. At three separate times nearly a hundred flowers 

 were fertilised illegitimately with their own-form pollen, 

 taken from separate plants; and numerous other 

 flowers were produced, many of which must have re- 

 ceived their own pollen. From all these flowers on 

 the seventeen short-styled plants only fifteen capsules 

 were produced, of which only eleven contained any 

 good seed, on an average 4.2 per capsule. As remarked 

 in the case of the long-styled plants, some even of these 

 capsules were perhaps the product of a little pollen 

 accidentally fallen from the adjoining flowers of the 

 other form on to the stigmas, or transported by Thrips. 

 Nevertheless the short-styled plants seem to be slightly 

 more fertile with their own pollen than the long-styled, 

 in the proportion of fifteen capsules to three; nor can 

 this difference be accounted for by the short-styled 

 stigmas being more liable to receive their own pollen 

 than the long-styled, for the reverse is the case. The 



I 



greater self-fertility of the short-styled flowers was like- 

 wise shown in 1861 by the plants in my flower-garden, 

 which were left to themselves, and were but sparingly 

 visited by insects. 



On account of the probability of some of the flowers 

 on the plants of both forms, which were covered under 

 the same net, having been legitimately fertilised in 

 an accidental manner, the relative fertility of the 

 two legitimate and two illegitimate unions cannot 

 be compared with certainty; but judging from the 

 number of good seeds per capsule, the difference was 

 at least in the ratio of 100 to 7, and probably much 

 greater. 



Hildebrand tested my results, but only on a single 

 short-styled plant, by fertilising many flowers with 

 their own-form pollen; and these did not produce any 



