

224 ILLEGITIMATE OFFSPRING OF Chap. V. 



in fertility to either form when legitimately crossed. 



Hence it appears that the male and female organs of this 



equal-styled variety have been modified in some special 



manner, not only in structure, but in functional powers. 



This, moreover, is shown by the singular fact that both f 



the long-styled and short-styled plants, fertilised with 



pollen from the equal-styled variety, yield a lower average 



of seed than when these two forms are fertilised with their j 



own pollen. 



The second point which deserves notice is that florists 

 always throw away the long-styled plants, and save seed • 



exclusively from the short-styled form. Nevertheless, as 

 Mr. Scott was informed by a man who raises this species 

 extensively in Scotland, about one-fourth of the seedlings 

 appear long-styled; so that the short-styled form of the 

 Auricula, when fertilised by its own pollen, does not re- 

 produce .the same form in so large a proportion as in the 

 case of P. Sinensis. We may further infer that the short- 

 styled form is not rendered quite sterile by a long course of . | 

 fertilisation with pollen of the same form; but as there 

 would always be some liability to an occasional cross with % 

 the other form, we cannot tell how long self -fertilisation 

 has been continued. 



Primula farinosa. 



Mr. Scott says * that it is not at all uncommon to find j 



equal-styled plants of this heterostyled species. Judging J 



from the size of the pollen-grains, these plants owe their 

 structure, as in the case of P. auricula, to the abnormal 

 elongation of the stamens of the long-styled form. In ac- 

 cordance with this view, they yield less seed when crossed 

 with the long-styled form than with the short-styled. But 

 they differ in an anomalous manner from the equal-styled 

 plants of P. auricula in being extremely sterile with their 

 own pollen. 



Primula elatior. 



It was shown in the first chapter, on the authority of 

 Herr Breitenbach, that equal-styled flowers are occasion- 

 ally found on this species whilst growing in a state of 



* ' Journal Proc. Linn. Soc.,' viii. (1864 ), p. 115, 



