CHAP. V. 



NOLANA PROSTRATA 



187 



grains. Thus the seeds produced by the flowers on an equal 

 number of plants, when crossed by bees, and spontaneously self- 

 fertilised (the product of fourteen artificially crossed flowers 

 being, however, included in the latter) were in weight as 

 100 to 61. 



In the summer of 1867 the trial was repeated ; thirty flowers 

 were crossed with pollen from a distinct plant and produced 

 twenty-seven capsules, each containing five seeds. Thirty-two 

 flowers were fertilised with their own pollen, and produced only 

 six capsules, each with five seeds. So that the crossed and self- 

 fertilised capsules contained the same number of seeds, though 

 many more capsules were produced by the cross-fertilised than 

 by the self-fertilised flowers, in the ratio of 100 to 21. 



An equal number of seeds of both lots were weighed, and the 

 crossed seeds were to the self-fertilised in weight as 100 to 82. 

 Therefore a cross increases the number of capsules produced and 

 the weight of the seeds, but not the number of seeds in each 

 capsule. 



These two lots of seeds, after germinating on sand, were 

 planted on the opposite sides of three pots. The seedlings 

 when from 6 to 7 inches in height were equal. The plants 

 were measured when fully grown, but their heights were so 

 unequal in the several pots, that the result cannot be folly 

 trusted. 



TABLE LXXV. 

 Nolana prostrata. 



The five crossed plants average 12 '75, and the five self- 

 fertilised 13-1 inches in height; or as 100 to 105. 



