OF DIMOEPHIC A^D TBIMOKPHIC PLANTS. 



415 



the structure varied much on the same umbel : for in two flowers 

 the pistil was intermediate in length between that of the long- 

 and that of the short-styled form, with the stigma elongated as in 

 the former, and smooth as in the latter ; and in three other flowers 

 the structure was in all respects like that of the long-styled form. 

 These modifications appeared to me so remarkable that I fertilized 

 eight of the flowers with their own pollen, and obtained five cap- 

 sules, which contained on an average forty-three seeds ; and this 

 number shows that the flowers had become abnormally fertile in 

 comparison with those of ordinary long-styled plants when self- 

 fertilized. These facts led me to examine the plants in several 

 small collections, with the following result, showing that the equal- 

 styled variety is not rare. 



Name of Owner 

 or Place. 



Long-stjled 

 Form. 



Short-stjled 

 Form. 



Equal-stjled 

 Variety. 



Mr. Horwood 



Mr. Duck 







20 

 30 

 12 

 42 

 16 

 1 



13 





 



18 

 9 



12 

 

 5 



7 



17 



15 

 2 

 

 

 







Baston 



Chichester ' 



High Elms 





My own plants from 

 purchased seeds... 



Total 



134 /)! 1 4.1 



1 



^» \r^ ^^ 



1 





In a state of nature the long- and ahort-styled fornif? would no 

 doubt occur in equal numbers, as I infer from the analogy of 

 other dimorphic species of Primula, and from having raised the 

 two forms of the present species in exactly the same number from 

 flowers which had been legitimately crossed. The preponderance 

 in the above Table of the loug-styled form over the short-styled (in 

 the proportion of 134 to 51) results from gardeners generally 

 collecting seed from self-fertilized flowers j and I have shown in 

 my previous paper that the long-styled form spontaneously pro- 

 duces much more seed than the short-styled, owing to the anthers 

 in the long-styled form being placed low down in the corolla, so 

 that, when the flowers fall ofi*, the anthers are dragged over the 

 stigma ; and we now also know that long-styled plants, when self- 

 fertilized, almost invariably reproduce long-styled offspring. 



To return to the equal-styled variety. Mr. Horwood raised 

 from purchased seed four plants, which c^^rtainly were not long- 



