CHAP. III. SUMMARY OF OBSERVATIONS. 79 



In one instance crossed and self-fertilised seedlings, 

 grown in rich soil and not put into competition with 

 each other, attained to an equal height. When we 

 come to the fourth generation the two tallest crossed 

 plants taken together exceeded by only a little the two 

 tallest self-fertilised plants, and one of the latter beat 

 its crossed opponent, a circumstance which had not 

 occurred in the previous generations. This victorious 

 self-fertilised plant consisted of a new white-flowered 

 variety, which grew taller than the old yellowish 

 varieties. From the first it seemed to be rather more 

 fertile, when self-fertilised, than the old varieties, and 

 in the succeeding self-fertilised generations became 

 more and more self-fertile. In the sixth generation the 

 self-fertilised plants of this variety compared with the 

 crossed plants produced capsules in the proportion 

 of 147 to 100, both lots being allowed to fertilise 

 themselves spontaneously. In the seventh generation 

 twenty flowers on one of these plants artificially 

 self-fertilised yielded no less than nineteen very fine 

 capsules ! 



This variety transmitted its characters so faithfully 

 to all the succeeding self-fertilised generations, up to 

 the last or ninth, that all the many plants which were 

 raised presented a complete uniformity of character ; 

 thus offering a remarkable contrast with the seedlings 

 raised from the purchased seeds. Yet this variety 

 retained to the last a latent tendency to produce 

 yellow flowers ; for when a plant of the eighth self- 

 fertilised generation was crossed with pollen from a 

 yellow-flowered plant of the Chelsea stock, every 

 single seedling bore yellow flowers. A similar variety, 

 at least in the colour of its flowers, also appeared 

 amongst the crossed plants of the third generation. 

 No attention was at first paid to it, and I know not 



