418 MB. C. DAEWIN ON THE ILLEGITIMATE OFFSPRING 



plant belonging to Mr. Duck), which consisted of fourteen equal- 

 styled and two long-styled plants ; and I mention this fact as 

 an additional instance of the transmission of the equal-styled 

 variety. 



The third lot in the Table, namely the Baston plants, are the 

 last which need be mentioned. The long- and short-styled plants 

 were descended from a distinct stock from the fifteen equal-styled 

 plants. The latter were derived from a single plant, which the 

 gardener is positive was not long-styled ; hence, probably, it was 

 equal-styled. In all these fifteen plants the anthers, occupying 

 the same position as in the long-styled form, closely surrounded 

 the stigma, which in one instance alone was slightly elongated. 

 Notwithstanding this position of the stigma, the flowers, as the 



gardener assured me, did not yield many seeds ; and this difierence 

 from the foregoing cases may perhaps have been caused by the 

 pollen being bad, as in some of the Southampton equal-styled 

 plants. 



Conclusions ivith respect to the equal-styled variety of ^. sinensis. 



That this is a variation, and not a third or distinct form, as in 

 the trimorphic genera Lythrum and Oxalis^ is clear ; for we have 

 seen in an illegitimate long-styled plant its first appearance ; and 

 in the case of Mr. Duck's seedlings, long-styled plants, only 

 slightly deviating from the normal state, and equal-styled plants 

 were produced from the same self-fertilized parent. The position 

 of the stamens in their proper place low down in the tube of the 

 corolla, together with the small size of the pollen-grains, show, 

 first that the equal-styled variety is a modification of the long- 

 styled form, and secondly that the pistil is the part which varies, 

 as indeed was obvious in many of the plants. This variation is of 

 frequent occurrence, and when it has once appeared is strongly 

 inherited. It would have possessed little interest if is had con- 

 sisted of a mere change of structure ; but this is accompanied by 

 modified fertility. Its occurrence apparently stands in close re- 

 lation with the illegitimate birth of the affected plant, and is pro- 

 bably due to reversion ; but to this point I shall recur at the close 



of this paper. 



Peimula Aueicula. 



Although I made no experiments on the illegitimate off- 

 spring of this species, I refer to it for two reasons: — First, 

 because I have observed two equal-styled plants in which the 

 pistil resembled in all respects that of the long-styled form, 



