328 FERTILITY OF CROSSED CHAP. IX 



than those from the latter, they were not so in any 

 corresponding degree. With Mcotiana the flowers 

 fertilised with their own pollen were more productive 

 than those crossed with pollen from a slightly different 

 variety ; yet the plants raised from the latter seeds 

 were much taller, heavier, and more hardy than those 

 raised from the self-fertilised seeds. On the othuv 

 hand, the crossed seedlings of Eschscholtzia were 

 neither taller nor heavier than the self- fertilised, 

 although the crossed flowers were far more productive 

 than the self-fertilised. But the best evidence of a 

 want of correspondence between the number of seeds 

 produced by crossed and self-fertilised flowers, and 

 the vigour of the offspring raised from them, is afforded 

 by the plants of the Brazilian and European stocks 

 of Eschscholtzia, and likewise by certain individual 

 plants of Reseda odorata ; for it might have been ex- 

 pected that the seedlings from plants, the flowers of 

 which were excessively self-sterile, would have profited 

 in a greater degree by a cross, than the seedlings from 

 plants which were moderately or fully self-fertile, and 

 therefore apparently had no need to be crossed. But 

 no such result followed in either case: for instance, 

 the crossed and self-fertilised offspring from a highly 

 self-fertile plant of Eeseda odorata were in average 

 height to each other as 100 to 82 ; whereas the similar 

 offspring from an excessively self-sterile plant were as 

 100 to 92 in average height. 



With respect to the innate fertility of the plants 

 of crossed and self-fertilised parentage, given in the 

 previous Table D that is, the number of seeds pro- 

 duced by both lots when their flowers were fertilised 

 in the same manner, nearly the same remarks are 

 applicable, in reference to the absence of any close 

 correspondence between their fertility and powers of 



