222 ILLEGITIMATE OFFSPRING OF Chap. V. 



In regard to the twenty long-styled plants, the pistil in . 

 some of the flowers did not project quite so high as in ordi- 

 nary long-styled flowers ; and the stigmas, though properly 

 elongated, were smooth, so that we have here a slight ap- 

 proach in structure to the pistil of the short-styled form. 

 Some of these long-styled plants also approached the equal- 

 styled in function; for one of them produced no less than 

 fifteen spontaneously self -fertilised capsules, and of these 

 eight contained, on an average, 31.7 seeds, with a maximum 

 of 61. This average would be rather low for a long-styled 

 plant artificially fertilised with its own pollen, but is high 

 for one spontaneously self -fertilised. For instance, thirty- 

 four capsules produced by the illegitimate grandchildren 

 of a long-styled plant, spontaneously self -fertilised, con- 

 tained on an average only 9.1 seeds, with a maximum of 

 46. Some seeds indiscriminately saved from the foregoing 

 twenty-nine equal-styled and long-styled plants produced 

 sixteen seedlings; grandchildren of the original plant be- 

 longing to Mr. Duck ; and these consisted of fourteen equal- 

 styled and two long-styled plants ; and I mention this fact 

 as an additional instance of the transmission of the equal- 

 styled variety. 



The third lot in the table, namely, the Baston plants, 

 are the last which need be mentioned. The long- and short- 

 styled plants, and the fifteen equal-styled plants, were de- 

 scended from two distinct stocks. The latter were derived 

 from a single plant, which the gardener is positive was 

 not long-styled ; hence probably it was equal-styled. In all 

 these fifteen plants the anthers occupying the same posi- 

 tion as in the long-styled form, closely surrounded the stig- * 

 ma, which in one instance alone was slightly elongated. 

 Notwithstanding this position of the stigma, the flowers, 

 as the gardener assured me, did not yield many seeds ; and 

 this difference from the foregoing cases may perhaps have 

 been caused by the pollen being bad, as in some of the 

 Southampton equal-styled plants. 



■ 



Conclusions with respect to the equal-styled variety 

 of P. Sinensis. — That this is a variation, and not a third 

 or distinct form, as in the trimorphic genera Lythrum 

 and Oxalis, is clear ; for we have seen its first appearance 



