OF DlMOKPllIC AND TRiMOttPHIC PLANTS. 413 



and produced twelve capsules containing an average of 28'2 seeds; 

 so that these two plants, though belonging to so weakly a set, 

 were rather more fertile than their parents, and perhaps not at 

 all sterile. Four flowers on the same two grandchildren were legi- 

 timately fertilized by a long-styled illegitimate plantj and produced 

 four capsules, containing only 32*2 seeds instead of about sixty -four 

 seeds, which is the normal average I have obtained from legitimate 

 sbort-styled plants legitimately crossed. 



By looking back, it will be seen that at first I raised from a 

 short-styled plant fertilized by its own-form pollen seven short- 

 styled plants and one-long styled. These illegitimate plants of the 

 two forms were legitimately crossed, and from their seed fifteen 

 plants were raised, grandcliildren of the first illegitimate union. 

 According to analogy half of them ought to have been long-styled 

 and half short-styled ; but all were short-styled. Altogether, of 

 the twenty-five plants illegitimately descended from the short- 

 styled grandparent, twenty-four proved to be short-styled and one 

 alone long-styled. Twelve short-styled flowers borne by the 

 fifteen grandchildren were fertilized by pollen taken from plants 

 of the same form belonging to the same lot, and produced eight 

 capsules which contained an average of 21*8 seeds, witli a maximum 

 of thirty-five. These figures are rather below the normal standard 

 for such a union. Six flowers were also legitimately fertilized by 

 an illegitimate long-styled plant and produced only three capsules, 

 containing on an average 23'6 seeds with a maximum of thirty-five. 

 Such a union in the case of a legitimate plant ought to liave yielded 

 an average of sixty -four seeds, with a possible maximum of seventy- 

 three seeds. 



Summary on the transmission of form ^ constitutioi^ and fertility 

 of the illegitimate offspring o/* Primula sinensis. — In regard to the 

 long-styled form, the illegitimate off'spring, as far as my experience 

 during two generations of fifty-two plants serves *, appear invari- 

 ably to be long-styled. These plants grew vigorously; but the 

 flowers in one instance were small, appearing as if they had 

 reverted to the wild state. In the first illegitimate generation 

 they were perfectly fertile, and in the second their fertility was 

 only very slightly impaired. With respect to the short-styled 



* Dr. Hildebrand (Bot. Zeitung, 1864, p. 5) raised from a similar illegitimate 

 union seventeen plants, of which fourteen were loug-stjled and three short- 

 styled. From a short-styled plant illegitimately fertilized by its own pollen ha 

 raised fourteen plants, of which eleven were short-styled and three long- 

 styled. 



