tiOQ MR, C. DABWIN OX THE ILLEGITIMATE OFFSPRTXO 



longer or shorter stamens of tlie same form ; but I have reason to 

 suspect that they were the product of the latter. These eight 

 plants were much more dwarfed, and mucli more sterile than 

 those in the other two lots. The latter were raised from a long- 

 styled plant growing quite isolated and fertilized by the agency of 

 bees with its own pollen; and it is almost certain, from the rela- 

 tive position of the organs of fructification, that tbe stigma under 

 these circumstances would be fertilized by pollen from the longer 

 stamens. 



All the fifty-six plants in these three lots proved long-styled ; 

 now, if the parent plants had been legitimately fertilized by pollen 

 from the longer stamens of the mid- styled or short-styled forms, 

 about one-third alone of the seedlings would have been long- 

 styled, and the other two-thirds would have been mid-styled and 

 short-styled. In some other trimorphic and dimorphic genera we 

 shall find the same curious and inexplicable fact, namely that the 

 long-styled form, fertilized by its own-form pollen, produces 

 almost exclusively long-styled seedlings *. 



The eight plants of the first lot were of low stature : three 

 wbich I measured attained, when fully grown, the heights of only 

 28, 29, and 47 inches ; whilst a legitimate plant growing close by 

 reached the height of 77 inches. They all betrayed in tbeir 

 general appearance a weak constitution ; they flowered rather 

 later in the season, and at a later age than ordinary plants. 

 Some did not flower every year; and one plant, in an unprece- 

 dented manner, did not flower until three years old. In the two 

 other lots none of the plants grew quite to their full and proper 

 height, as could at once be seen by comparing them with the 

 adjoining rows of legitimate plants. In several plants in all three 

 lots, many of the anthers were either shrivelled or contained 

 brown and tough, or pulpy matter, without any good pollen- 

 grains, and they never shed their contents ; they were in the state 



Gartner f 



for 



the future use. In one flower all the anthers were contabescent 

 excepting two, which appeared to the naked eye sound ; but under 

 the microscope about two-thirds of the pollen-grains were seen to 

 be small and shrivelled. In another plant, in which all the 

 anthers appeared sound, many of the pollen-grains were shrivelled 



1864 



near. 



uniform or striking as mine, 



t Beitrage zur Tvenntniss der Befruchtung, 1M4, S. IIG. 



