18621871] JOHN SCOTT 311 



in saying this to so good an observer. In Lobelia the closed Letter 636 

 pistil grows rapidly, and pushes out the pollen, and then the 

 stigma expands, and the flower in function is monoecious ; 

 from appearance I believe this is the case with your plant. 

 I hope it is so, for this plant can hardly require a cross, being 

 in function monoecious ; so that dimorphism in such a case 

 would be a heavy blow to understanding its nature or good 

 in all other cases. I see few periodicals : when have you 

 published on Clivia ? I suppose that you did not actually 

 count the seeds in the hybrids in comparison with those of 

 the parent-forms ; but this is almost necessary after Gartner's 

 observations. I very much hope you will make a good series 

 of comparative trials on the same plant of Tacsonia} I have 

 raised 700 800 seedlings from cowslips, artificially fertilised 

 with care ; and they presented not a hair's-breadth approach 

 to oxlips. I have now seed in pots of cowslip fertilised by 

 pollen of primrose, and I hope they will grow ; I have also 

 got fine seedlings from seed of wild oxlips ; so I hope to 

 make out the case. You speak of difficulties on Natural Selec- 

 tion : there are indeed plenty ; if ever you have spare time 

 (which is not likely, as I am sure you must be a hard worker) 

 I should be very glad to hear difficulties from one who has 

 observed so much as you have. The majority of criticisms 

 on the Origin are, in my opinion, not worth the paper they 

 are printed on. Sir C. Lyell is coming out with what, I 

 expect, will prove really good remarks. 2 Pray do not think 

 me intrusive ; but if you would like to have any book I have 

 published, such as my Journal of Researches or the Origin, I 

 should esteem it a compliment to be allowed to send it. Will 

 you permit me to suggest one experiment, which I should 

 much like to see tried, and which I now wish the more from an 

 extraordinary observation by Asa Gray 3 (in number just out 



1 See Scott in Linn. Soc. Journal, VIII. 



2 Lyell's Antiquity of Man was published in the spring of 1863. In 

 the Life and Letters, Vol. III., pp. 8, II, Darwin's correspondence shows 

 his deep disappointment at what he thought Lyell's half-heartedness in 

 regard to evolution. See Letter 164, p. 239, Vol. I. 



3 In Gymnadenia tridentata, according to Asa Gray, the anther opens 

 in the bud, and the pollen being somewhat coherent falls on the stigma 

 and on the rostellum, which latter is penetrated by the pollen-tubes. Fer- 

 tilisation of Orchids, Ed. n., p. 68. Asa Gray's papers are in American 

 Journal of Science, Vol. XXXIV., 1862, and XXXVI. , 1863. 



