SELF-FERTILIZATION OF PLANTS. 373 
fertilised as 100 to 126; in the sixth [in number of capsules]* as 100 to 147 ; and in the 
seventh [in height] as 100 to 137. This excess of height may be attributed not only to 
this variety naturally growing taller than the other plants, but to its possessing a peculiar 
constitution, so that it did not suffer from continued self-fertilisation " (p. 80). Con- 
~ 
Geen it appeared to thrive by it, and unmistakably shows that there is no “ injurious- 
ness" per se in self-fertilization at all. 
Euphrasia officinalis, Dr. Miller thus describes the small self-fertilizing form of this 
species :—‘‘ Whilst in the flowers of the larger form the anthers remain soldered 
together, and do not scatter their pollen unless the hairs are shaken, in the flowers of the 
smaller form the anthers separate from each other, and scatter nearly all their pollen 
long before the corolla has fully opened.” Moreover, in this form, the deflexed hairs on 
the anthers are mostly wanting. Mr. Darwin’s experiment appears to have been with 
the intererossing form, as he alludes to the “ bristles which project from the anthers; " 
yet, when covered up, this plant “ produced plenty of seed." If this be a correct surmise, 
doth forms are highly self-fertile. Ascherson regards them as varieties. 
Rhinanthus Crista-Galli has also two forms, « and p, L., Rh. major and Rh. minor, 
Ehrh. i á 
Melampyrum: M. americanum is thus described by Mr. Meehan :—* The curved apex 
of the pistil is clasped by the stamens, and held in contact with the pollen just as in a 
cleistogamous violet," and is, he assumes, self-fertilizing. In these and other allied forms 
the self-fertilization is generally secured by the style curving down over the front of the 
stamens, and so reaching the anthers (Tab. XLIV. fig. 30 b); or else, as in Prunella, 
being too short to arch over them, stands below, and so allows the pollen to fall down 
upon them (Tab. XLIV. figs. 24 a, b, c, illustrate this). 
 Vandellia nummularifolia has cleistogamous flowers, and proved more fertile when 
self-fertilized than when erossed by Mr. Darwin in the ratio of 752:598 or 100 : 79:5. 
Limosella aquatica. "The minute blossoms, globose stigma between the anthers, and 
the ‘abundance of seeds all point to the conviction that it is self-fertilizing ; but I have 
had no opportunity of examining it in the living state. 
.. OnosANCHACEJE.— Some plants of Orobanche Hedere I found growing on the St. Vin- 
eent’s Rocks at Clifton, having in the early stage of the flower a well-developed ond 
glutinous stigma projecting forwards before the anthers dehisced, as shown in Tab. XLIV. 
fig. 31a. A later stage is seen in fig. 31 b, in which the anthers were recurved about the 
stigma, and self-fertilization apparently secured. (This requires corroboration.) 
Epiphegus virginiana. This is described in the * Genera Plantarum ' as having the supe- 
rior flowers hermaphrodite, very often, but not always, sterile; the inferior cleistanthic 
female, fertile, with abortive stamens, but the ovary perfect. "This, if correct, would seem 
to record a case of parthenogenesis ; but in a specimen sent me by Mr. Meehan, with the 
lowermost cleistogamous buds subterranean, I found that each had two stamens, the 
anthers of which adhered to the stigma and were carried up by the enlarging eni (as 
* The ratio 100: 147 does not refer to heights, as Mr. Darwin has inadvertently included it in the text, but to 
capsules. For further inferences from this plant see above, p. 369 (l. c. p. 69). 
SECOND ——— NR) SEE Ae ee 
