or DIMOEPHIC AND TEIMOEPIIIC PLANTS. 423 



illegitimate offspring of Primula sinensis that they yield but few 

 more seeds when legitimately fertilized than when fertilized by 

 their own-form pollen. 



Pkimtjla yerts, Brit. Fl. 

 Var. officinalis of Linn., P. officinalis of Jacq. 



Seeds from the short-styled form of the Cowslip fertilized by the 

 same-form pollen germinate so badly that I raised from three suc- 

 cessive sowings only fourteen plants, which consisted of nine short- 

 styled and five long-styled plants. Hence the short-styled form of 

 the cowslip, when self-fertilized, does not transmit the same form 

 nearly so truly as does that of P.jinensis. Prom the long-styled 

 form, fertilized by its own-form pollen, I first raised three long- 

 styled plants, and from their self-fertilized seed 53 long-styled 

 grandchildren, from their seed 4 long-styled great-grandchildren, 

 and again from their seed 20 long-styled great-great-grandchildren. 

 From two other long-styled plants, fertilized by their own-form 

 pollen, 72 plants were raised, which consisted of 68 long-styled 

 and 4 short-styled. As in this latter case the two parent plants, 

 whilst under the net, did not produce a sufficiency of pollen, I 

 committed, through forgetfulness, a capital error, and took some 

 pollen from an adjoining uncovered long-styled plant. Now I 

 have found on the proboscis of humble-bees of two species and of 

 a moth (CucuUia), which were caught sucking the flowers of the 

 Cowslip, an abundance of pollen of both forms. Hence, by taking 

 the anthers of the uncovered long-styled plant, which probably had 

 been visited by insects, the flowers under the net might have acci- 

 dentally received a few grains from the short-styled form. Whe- 

 ther the appearance of the four short-styled plants in this set of 

 seedlings may thus be accounted for I know not ; but it is the sole 

 exception which has occurred with me of a long-styled form of any 

 plant, when self-fertilized, failing to produce the same form. 

 Dr. Hildebrand, however, states that, out of 17 plants of P. sinensis 

 derived from the self-fertilized long-styled form, three were short- 

 styled. Altogether, in the first lot of seedlings, consisting of four 

 generations, and in the second lot, 152 plants were raised, and all 

 were long-styled with the exception of the just-mentioned four 

 short-styled plants. 



From the first seeds sown I raised from a self-fertilized short- 

 styled plant one short-styled and two long-styled plants, and 

 from a self-fertilized long-styled plant three long-styled plants. 

 The fertility of these six illegitimate plants was carefully observed. 



