REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS IN THE PRIMULACEX. - 99 
special account of experiments, it is necessary to state that the 
red Primrose rarely ever, in its own natural state, produces a 
single seed—a peculiarity possessed in common with the above- 
mentioned white variety. Both ofthese varieties, Mr. M‘Nab in- 
forms me, have been cultivated in the Botanie Gardens of Edin- 
burgh for a number of years; yet, previous to this season, he has 
not known them to produce a single seed. With the view of 
satisfying myself as to the absolute sterility of these plants, I 
instituted a series of experiments, the results of which show that 
this is only partly correct,—certain individuals being perfectly fer- 
tile, others absolutely sterile, pollen being carefully applied to both. 
This is shown by the following experiments :—First, I selected 
a few fine vigorous-growing plants of the red and white varieties, 
and continued for some time regularly fertilizing the flowers as 
they were successively developed. I feel certain that I thus fer- 
tilized upwards of two hundred flowers without getting a single 
seed! Secondly, I directed my experiments to those plants which, 
with a less vigorous habit, produced a greater profusion of blooms. 
These I found to be alone productive—at least when artificially 
fertilized—for they seem to be equally as sterile as the others when 
fertilization is left to natural agencies: perhaps they are less 
sought after by insects than the common yellow Primrose. Any- 
how, I have failed to detect a single seed on those plants in the 
Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh, which had proved fertile by 
artificial treatment, on leaving them to the agencies of nature. 
Those plants of the red and white Primrose, stated in the above 
table to yield such remarkable results, were also proved susceptible 
of artificial fertilization with own pollen, both before and after I had 
repeatedly failed in effecting good results from cross-unions between 
them, and also between them and the common Primrose: every 
capsule thus treated, singularly enough, proved abortive! How- 
ever these results then may be modified by future experimenta- 
tion, the following important conclusion will remain unaffected, 
namely, that plants of the P. vulgaris, var. rubra, characterized, 
as we have already shown, by the most capricious and uncertain 
performance of their sexual functions, nevertheless proved fertile 
when treated with own pollen; AT THE SAME TIME that similar es- 
Primrose, perfectly fertile inter se; whereas by their unions with the latter we 
see in the one case a relatively decreased fertility, in the other absolute sterility 
resulting! How utterly inconsistent, then, are such results with the idea of 
hybridity! In consonance with a hybrid origin, an increased instead of a de- 
creased fertility ought to have resulted from the latter unions. 
