2-8 RIM-ETIN OF THE TORREV CLUB |vOL. 5.^ 



and will kmction in certain relations. The plants are fully able 

 to mature at the same time both fruits with viable seeds and 

 bulbs and bulblets. They are self-fruitless because the essential 

 organs — the pistils with their ovules and eggs and the pollen 

 tubes and their sperms — do not react in the manner necessary 

 for fertilization. There is, one may say, a physiological incom- 

 patibilitv in the processes of fertili/aticjn necessary for seed forma- 

 tion. 



This type of sterility is indeed very common among plants, 

 both wild and cultivated, that have perfect flowers. It exists 

 among annuals that are propagated only by seeds. It is present 

 in plants that are propagated vegetatively and in this case the 

 plants of the same clon will not "cross," for the pollination 

 between plants is not crossing but is in reality only the same as 

 pollinating from flower to flower on one plant. 



Sterility from self-incompatibility is the rule in all ot the 

 thirty odd species of lilies tested at the New York Botanical 

 Garden. F.ven in species that commonly yield seed abundantly 

 {L. resale, L. loiigijioriini, L. Henryi, L. speciosum, L. superbum, 

 L. tenuifolium, etc.) many seedling plants are as completely self- 

 incompatible as is the tiger lily. But in these the species includes 

 numerous clonal strains and is grown from seed rather generally. 

 Although there is also some cross-incompatibility between plants 

 known to be difl^erent seedlings, there are usually, in a planting of 

 these lilies, enough different strains to provide for compatible 

 crossings. Abundant capsules and seed on the lilies in one's 

 garden almost always mean that there are ilitferent seedlings or 

 clons present and that the insects have made cross-pollinations 



between them. 



Literature cited 



Elwes, H. J. 1880. .\ monograph of the genus Liliiim. London. 

 Kerslake, G. 1906. Report Third International Conference on Genetics. 

 Preston, I. 1924. Liliums from seed in Ontario. Gardeners' Chronicle 76: .",20. 



1925. Lilies from seeii. Horticulture N. S. 3: 11. 



1916. Growing lilies from seed. Horticulture 4: 95. 



Stout, A. B. 1922. l.i/iitm liKrinum. Addisonia 7: 5 ,5. 



192,3. Sterility in Lilies. Jour. Hered. 13: 369-37.3. 

 Wilson, E. H. 1925. The lilies of Fiastern .Asia, a monograph. London. 



