302 



'DIFFERENT FORMS OF FLOWERS 



[l862. 



of heaven have a look at some of your species, and if you 

 can get me seed, do ; I want much to try species with few 

 stamens, if they are dimorphic ; Nescea verticillata I should 

 expect to be trimorphic. Seed ! Seed ! Seed ! I should rather 

 like seed of Mitchella. But oh, Lythrum ! 



Your utterly mad friend, 



C. Darwin. 



P.S. — There is reason in my madness, for I can see that to 

 those who already believe in change of species, these facts 

 will modify to a certain extent the whole view of Hybridity.* 



[On the same subject he wrote to Sir Joseph Hooker in 

 August 1862 : — 



"Is Oliver at Kew? When I am established at Bourne- 

 mouth I am completely mad to examine any fresh flowers of 

 any Lythraceous plant, and I would write and ask him if any 

 are in bloom." 



Again he wrote to the same friend in October : — 



" If you ask Oliver, I think he will tell you I have got a 

 real odd case in Lythrum, it interests me extremely, and 

 seems to me the strangest case of propagation recorded 

 amongst plants or animals, viz. a necessary triple alliance 

 between three hermaphrodites. I feel sure I can now prove 

 the truth of the case from a multitude of crosses made this 



summer. 



* A letter to Dr." Gray (July, 

 1862) bears on this point : " A few- 

 days ago I made an observation 

 which has surprised me more than 

 it ought to do— it will have to be 

 repeated several times, but I have 

 scarcely a doubt of its accuracy. I 

 stated in my Primula paper that 

 the long-styled form of Linum 

 grandiflorum was utterly sterile 

 with its own pollen ; I have lately 

 been putting the pollen of the two 

 forms on the division of the stigma 

 of the same flower ; and it strikes 



me as truly wonderful, that the 

 stigma distinguishes the pollen ; 

 and is penetrated by the tubes of 

 the one and not by those of the 

 other ; nor are the tubes exserted. 

 Or (which is the same thing) the 

 stigma of the one form acts on and 

 is acted on by pollen, which produces 

 not the least effect on the stigma of 

 the other form. Taking sexual 

 power as the criterion of difference, 

 the two forms of this one species 

 may be said to be generically 

 distinct." 



