430 Mli. C. DAUWIN ON THE ILLEGITIMATE OFFSPRING 



number as the parent plant yielded iu Edinburgh. Thirty-four 



flowers, fertilized with pollen from the long-styled Cowslip (and 



this is an analogous union), produced 17 capsules, containing an 



average of 33*8 seeds. It is a rather singular circumstance, for 



which I cannot account, that 20 flowers, artificially fertilized with 



pollen from the same plants, yielded only ten capsules, containing 



the low^ average of 267 seeds. 



As bearing on inheritance, it may be added that 72 seedlings 



were raised from one of the red-flow^ered strictly equal-styled 

 self-fertilized plants derived from the Edinburgh plant which was 

 similarly characterized- These 72 grandchildren all bore, as in the 

 first generation, red flowers, with the exception of one plant, which 

 reverted in colour to the common Cowslip. In regard to structure, 

 nine plants w^ere truly long-styled, and had their stamens seated 

 low down in the corolla in the proper position ; the remaining 

 63 plants were equal-styled, though the stigma in about a dozen 

 of them stood a little below the anthers. We thus see that the 

 anomalous combination in the same plant, of male and female sexual 

 organs which properly exist in distinct forms or plants, is inhe- 

 rited with much force. Thirty-six seedlings were also raised from 

 long- and short-styled common Cowslips, crossed by pollen of the 

 equal-styled variety. Of these plants one alone was equal-styled, 

 20 were short-styled but with the pistil in three of them rather 

 too long, and the remaining 15 were long-styled. In this case we 

 have an illustration of the difference between simple inheritance 

 and prepotency of transmission ; for the equal-styled variety, when 

 self-fertilized, transmits its character, as we have seen, w^ith much 

 force, but when crossed with the common CoAvslip cannot with- 

 st-and the greater power of transmission of the latter. 



Genus Pttlmonabia. 



I have little to say on this genus. I obtained some seeds of 

 P. officinalis from a garden where the long-styled form alone 

 grew, and raised eleven seedlings, which were all long-styled. 

 These plants were named for me by Dr. Hooker ; but I have some 

 doubts whether they belong to the same species as that described 

 under the same name by Dr. Hildebrand*; for he found the long- 

 styled form absolutely sterile with its own pollen, whilst my long- 

 styled seedlings and the parent plants when self-fertilized yielded 

 a fair supply of seed. It is, however, possible that these plants 

 may have varied in function, as in the case of the so-called short- 



* Bot. Zeitung, 1865, p. 13. 



