OF DIMOHPHIC AND TJilMORPIIIC PLANTS, 42 



in fertility, as in the case of the illegitimate long-styled plants of 

 Lyth^um Salicaria ; and their fertility varied much according to 

 the season. I may premise, as a standard of comparison, that 

 during the same years 56 flowers on legitimate or ordinary long- 

 styled plants of the same age, and grown in the same soil, were 

 fertilized with their ow^n pollen, and yielded 27 capsules. On the 

 first of the five illegitimate long-styled plants, 36 flowers w^ere self- 

 fertilized in the course of the three years, but they did not produce 

 a single capsule. Many of the anthers on this plant were conta- 

 bescent ; but some seemed to contain sound pollen : nor were the 

 fen)ale organs quite impotent ; for I obtained from a legitimate 

 cross one capsule with good seed. On the second illegitimate 

 long-styled plant, 44 flowers were fertilized during the same years 

 \vith their ow^n pollen, but they produced only a single capsule. 

 The third and fourth plants were in a very slight degree more 

 productive. The fifth and last plant was decidedly more fertile ; 

 for 42 self-fertilized flowers yielded 11 capsules. Altogether, in 

 the course of tlie three years, no less than 160 flowers produced 

 by the five illegitimate long-styled plants w:ere fertilized with 

 their own pollen, and yielded only 22 capsules. According to the 

 standard above given, they ought to have produced 80 capsules. 

 These 22 capsules contained on an average 15*1 seeds. I believe, 

 subject to the doubts before specified, that with legitimate plants the 

 average from a union of this nature would have been above 20 seeds. 

 Twenty-four flowers on the same five illegitimate plants were legi- 

 timately fertilized by pollen from the above-described illegitimate 

 short-styled plants, and produced only 9 capsules, which is an ex- 

 tremely small number for a legitimate union. These 9 capsules, how- 

 ever, contained an average of 38 apparently good seeds, which is as 

 large a number as legitimate plants sometimes yield. But this high 

 average was almost certainly false ; and I mention the case for 

 the sake of showing the difficulty of arriving at a fair result; for 

 this average mainly depended on two capsules containing the 

 extraordinary numbers of 75 and 56 seeds ; but these seeds, though 

 I felt bound to count them, were so poor that, judging from trials 

 actually made in other cases, I do not suppose that one would 

 have germinated ; and therefore they ought not to have been in- 

 cluded. Lastly, 20 flowers were legitimately fertilized by pollen 

 from a legitimate plant, and this increased their fertility ; for they 

 produced 10 capsules. Yet this is but a very small proportion for 



a legitimate union. 



Hence there. can be no doubt that these five long-styled plants 



I'INN. PROC. — BOTANY, TOL. X. 2 f 



