CHAP. VIII. OP THE CROSSED PLANTS. 291 



after examining some of my tables, remarks : " It is very 

 evident that the columns with the self-fertilised plants 

 include the larger number of exceptionally small 

 plants ; " and the frequent presence of such puny plants 

 no doubt stands in close relation with their liability to 

 premature death. The self-fertilised plants of Petunia 

 completed their growth and began to wither sooner 

 than did the intercrossed plants; and these latter 

 considerably before the offspring from a cross with a 

 fresh stock. 



Period of Flowering. In some cases, as with Digitalis, 

 Dianthus, and Keseda, a larger number of the crossed 

 than of the self-fertilised plants threw up flower-stems ; 

 but this probably was merely the result of their greater 

 power of growth ; for in the first generation of Lobelia 

 fulgens, in which the self-fertilised plants greatly ex- 

 ceeded in height the crossed plants, some of the latter 

 failed to throw up flower-stems. With a large number 

 of species, the crossed plants exhibited a well-marked 

 tendency to flower before the self-fertilised ones 

 growing in the same pots. It should however be 

 remarked that no record was kept of the flowering of 

 many of the species; and when a record was kept, 

 the flowering of the first plant in each pot was alone 

 observed, although two or more pairs grew in the same 

 pot. I will now give three lists, one of the species 

 in which the first plant that flowered was a crossed 

 one, a second in which the first that flowered was a 

 self-fertilised plant, and a third of those which 

 flowered at the same time. 



Species, of which the first Plants that flowered were 



of Crossed Parentage. 



Ipomcea purpurea. I record in my notes that in all ten genera- 

 tions many of the crossed plants flowered before the self- 

 fertilised ; but no details were kept. 



TJ 2 



