OF BIMOBPHIC AND TBIMOEPniC PLANTS. 411 



illegitimately fertilized by pollen from the same form, twenty- 

 seven seedlings. These were all long-styled. They proved fully 

 fertile or even fertile in excess ; for ten flowers, fertilized by pollen 

 from other plants of the same lot, yielded nine capsules, containing 

 on an average 39'75 seeds, with a maximum number in one capsule 

 of sixty-six seeds. Again four of these flowers legitimately crossed 

 by pollen from a legitimate plant, and four flowers on the latter 

 crossed by pollen from the illegitimate seedlings, yielded seven 

 capsules with an average of fifty-three seeds, with a maximum of 

 seventy- two. I must here state that I have found some difficulty 

 in estimating the standard of fertility for the several unions of this 

 species, as the results differed much during successive years*, and 

 the seeds vary so greatly in size that it is hard to decide which 

 ought to be considered good. In order to avoid overestimating 

 the infertility of the several illegitimate unions, I have taken as 

 low standards as possible. 



From the foregoing twenty-seven plants, fertilized by their 

 own-form pollen, I raised twenty-five seedling grandchildren ; and 

 these were all long- styled ; so that from the two illegitimate 

 generations fifty-two plants were raised, and all without exception 

 proved long-styled. These grandchildren grew vigorously and 

 soon exceeded in height two other lots of illegitimate seedlings 

 of different parentage and one lot of equal-styled seedlings pre- 

 sently to be described. Hence I expected that they would 

 turn out highly ornamental plants ; but when they flowered, 

 they seemed, as my gardener remarked, to have gone back to the 

 wild state ; for the petals were pale-coloured, narrow, sometimes 

 not touching each other, flat, generally deeply notched in the 

 middle, but not flexuous on the margin, and with the yellow eye 



. * Dr. Hildebrand was much more successful than I was in fertilizing the 

 flowers of P. sinensis ; yet the number of seeds obtained by him is certainly much 

 too low. TKus he gives (Bot. Zeitung, 1864, p. 3) eighteen seeds as the average 

 number produced by the long-styled form, when illegitimately fertilized by the 

 same-form pollen, and forty-one as the number when legitimately fertilized. 

 For the short-styled form, the corresponding numbers are twenty and forty-four. 

 The lowest standards which I can give for the ill^timate and legitimate unions 

 of the long-styled form are thirty-fire and at least fifty, and for the short-styled 

 at least twenty -five and sixty-four. It is possible that Dr. Hildebrand's plants 

 were grown in too small pots, or, whilst maturing their seeds, were otherwise 

 treated in an unfavourable manner. This would account for the greater inequality 

 observed by him than that by me between the product of seeds from the legitimate 

 and illegitimate unions, as the latter always suffer most from unfavourable con. 

 ditions. 



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