190 ILLEGITIMATE OFFSPRING OF Chap. V. 



tried in 1863. The summer of 1864 was too hot and 

 dry, and though the plants were copiously watered, 

 some few apparently suffered in their fertility, whilst 

 others were not in the least affected. The years 

 1865 and, especially, 1866 were highly favourable. 

 Only a few observations were made during 1867. 

 The results are arranged in classes according to the 

 parentage of the plants. In each case the average 

 number of seeds per capsule is given, generally taken 

 from ten capsules, which, according to my experience, 

 is a nearly sufficient number. The maximum num- 

 ber of seeds in any one capsule is also given; and 

 this is a useful point of comparison with the nor- 

 mal standard — that is, with the number of seeds pro- 

 duced by legitimate plants legitimately fertilised. I 

 will give likewise in each case the minimum number. 

 When the maximum and minimum differ greatly, if 

 no remark is made on the subject, it may be under- 

 stood that the extremes are so closely connected by 

 intermediate figures that the average is a fair one. 

 Large capsules were always selected for counting, in 

 order to avoid over-estimating the infertility of the sev- 

 eral illegitimate plants. 



In order to judge of the degree of inferiority in 

 fertility of the several illegitimate plants, the follow- 

 ing statement of the average and of the maximum 

 number of seeds produced by ordinary or legitimate 

 plants, when legitimately fertilised, some artificially 

 and some naturally, will serve as a standard of com- 

 parison, and may in each case be referred to. But I 

 give under each experiment the percentage of seeds 

 produced by the illegitimate plants, in comparison 

 with the standard legitimate number of the same 

 form. For instance, ten capsules from the illegitimate 

 long-styled plant (No. 10), which was legitimately 



