434 MB. C. DAEWIN ON THE ILLEGITIMATE OFFSPRINa 



sexes separated, we find something of the same kind ; for Max 

 Wichura* has shown that with hybrid willows the proportion 

 between the male and female plants is very diiferent from what it is 

 with the pure parent species. Naudin f has also observed in the 

 case of hybrid Litffw that the racemes, which ought to bear male 

 flowers alone, included both sexes, and that some plants had become 

 female by the complete disappearance of the male flowers. With 

 hybrid animals the just proportion of the two sexes is likewise 

 disturbed, the males being in excess J. Hence hybridism, like illegi- 

 timacy of birth, certainly appears to affect the sex of the offspring. 

 It is manifest, from the facts previously given, that there is a 

 strong tendency in Primula sinensis, veris. Auricula^ and vulgaris to 

 produce equal-styled varieties. This singular variation may be com- 

 pared with those cases of monstrous hermaphroditism which occa- 

 sionally occur both in the animal and vegetable kingdoms ; for as 

 with unisexual organisms the opposite sexes are sometimes com- 

 bined in the same individual in a more or less pei-fcct manner, so 

 here the opposite or reciprocal sexual forms are combined in the 

 same plant and flower. In Frimula sinensis, vulgaris, and veris it is 

 the female organ or pistil which varies ; for the pistil in tlie first 

 two species is properly long-styled, and in the latter species pro- 

 perly short styled; whilst in the long-styled P, Auricula it is the 

 male organs or stamens which vary. Illegitimate birth seems to 

 be one cliicf exciting cause of this variation ; for I observed its first 

 appearance and various stages in illegitimate plants of P. sinensis-, 

 and we know that it frequently occurs in P. Auricula, which is 

 generally propagated in an illegitimate manner. Simple cultiva- 

 tion, however, suffices to cause it ; for I observed one incipient 

 case in a long-styled P. ve^ns which had been removed from the 

 fields and cultivated in good soil ; and I have heard of instances in 

 cultivated long-styled plants of P, vulgaris. "When this variation 



Bastardbefruchtung 

 velles Arcliires du 3 



been confirmed 



haps hardly by sufficient facts, by Flourens in his *Longevite Huniaine/ 18o5, 

 p. 154, Dr. O, Staudinger, of Dresden, has recently informed me that he hiis 

 never seen, in the case of Lepidoptera, a single hybrid of the female sex. He 

 has either bred or obtained above sixty hybrids between SmerintJitts oeellata S 

 and populi $ ; and all these are males except two, which are partially herma- 

 plirodites. This latter circumstance deserves notice in reference to the subject 

 discussed in tlie following paragraph of the iext, namely, on the tendency in il- 

 legitimate plants to combine both sexual forms in the game plant ; for this may 

 be considered a kind of hermaphroditism. 



