CHAP. II. DESCENDANTS OF HERO. 47 



to the fertility of the two lots, it was too troublesome to collect 

 and count the capsules on all the plants ; so I selected two of 

 the best pots, V. and VI., and in these the Colchester-crossed 

 produced 269 mature and half-mature capsules, whilst an equal 

 number of the intercrossed plants produced only 154 capsules ; 

 or as 100 to 57. By weight the capsules from the Colchester- 

 crossed plants were to those from the intercrossed plants as 

 100 to 51 ; so that the former probably contained a somewhat 

 larger average number of seeds. 



We learn from this important experiment that 

 plants in some degree related, which had been inter- 

 crossed during the nine previous generations, when they 

 were fertilised with pollen from a fresh stock, yielded 

 seedlings as superior to Jhe seedlings of the tenth 

 intercrossed generation, as these latter were to the self- 

 fertilised plants of the corresponding generation. For 

 if we look to the plants of the ninth generation in 

 Table X. (and these offer in most respects the fairest 

 standard of comparison) we find that the intercrossed 

 plants were in height to the self-fertilised as 100 to 79, 

 and in fertility as 100 to 26 ; whilst the Colchester- 

 crossed plants are in height to the intercrossed as 100 

 to 78, and in fertility as 100 to 51. 



The Descendants of the self-fertilised Plant, named Hero, which 

 appeared in the Sixth self-fertilised Generation. In the five genera 

 tions before the sixth, the crossed plant of each pair was taller 

 than its self-fertilised opponent; but in the sixth generation 

 (Table VII., Pot II.) the Hero appeared, which after a long and 

 dubious struggle conquered its crossed opponent, though by 

 only half an inch. I was so much surprised at this fact, that 

 I resolved to ascertain whether this plant would transmit 

 its powers of growth to its seedlings. Several flowers on 

 Hero were therefore fertilised with their own pollen, and the 

 seedlings thus raised were put into competition with self-fer- 

 tilised and intercrossed plants of the corresponding generation. 

 The three lots of seedlings thus all belong to the seventh genera- 



