CHAP. V. PHASEOLUS MULTIFLORU8. 151 



fine pods. When the net was taken off, the flowers were imme- 

 diately visited by bees, and it was interesting to observe how 

 quickly the plants became covered with young pods. As the 

 flowers are much frequented by Thrips, the self-fertilisation of 

 most of the flowers under the net may have been due to the action 

 of these minute insects. Dr. Ogle likewise covered up a large 

 portion of a plant, and " out of a vast number of blossoms thus 

 protected not a single one produced a pod, while the unprotected 

 blossoms were for the most part fruitful." Mr. Belt gives a 

 more curious case ; this plant grows well and flowers in Nicaraguaj 

 but as none of the native bees visit the flowers, not a single pod 

 is ever produced.* 



From the facts now given we may feel nearly sure that 

 individuals of the same variety or of different varieties, if growing 

 near each other and in flower at the same time, would inter- 

 cross ; but I cannot myself advance any direct evidence of such 

 an occurrence, as only a single variety is commonly cultivated in 

 England. I have, however, received an account from the Kev. 

 W. A. Leighton, that plants raised by him from ordinary seed 

 produced seeds differing in an extraordinary manner in colour 

 and shape, leading to the belief that their parents must have 

 been crossed. In France M. Fermond more than once planted 

 close together varieties which ordinarily come true and which 

 bear differently coloured flowers and seeds; and the offspring 

 thus raised varied so greatly that there could hardly be a doubt 

 that they had intercrossed.! On the other hand, Professor H. 

 Hoffmann J does not believe in the natural crossing of the 

 varieties ; for although seedlings raised from two varieties growing 

 close together produced plants which yielded seeds of a mixed 

 character, he found that this likewise occurred with plants sepa- 

 rated by a space of from 40 to 150 paces from any other variety ; 

 he therefore attributes the mixed character of the seed to sponta- 



* Dr. Ogle, ' Pop. Science Re- proper manner, 



view,' 1870, p. 168. Mr. Belt, f ' Fe'condation chez les Ve'g- 



4 The Naturalist in Nicaragua,' taux,' 1859, pp. 34-40. He adds 



1874, p. 70. The latter author that M. Villiers has described a 



gives a case (.' Nature,' 1875, spontaneous hybrid, which he 



p. 26) of a late crop of P. multi- calls P. coccineue hybridus, in the 



florus near London, which " was ' Annales de la Soc. R. de Horti- 



rendered barren " by the humble- culture,' June 1844. 



bees cutting, as they frequently \ ' Bestimmung des Werthes 



do, holes at the bases of the flowers von Species und Varietit,' 1869, 



instead of entering them in the pp. 47-72. 



