44 POIkKEA PURPUREA. Chap. IJL 



crossed plants are slightly inferior in height and in 

 earliness of flowering to the self-fertilised. But the 

 inferiority in height is so small, namely as 100 to 106, 

 that I should have felt very doubtful on this head, 

 had I not cut down all the plants (except those 

 in the crowded pot No. X.) close to the ground and 

 weighed them. The twenty -seven crossed plants 

 weighed 16^ ounces, and the twenty-seven self-fer- 

 tilised plants 20 ounces ; and this gives a ratio of 

 100 to 124. 



A self- fertilised plant of the same parentage as those 

 in Table XII. had been raised in a separate pot for a 

 distinct purpose ; and it proved partially sterile, the 

 anthers containing very little pollen. Several flowers . 

 on this plant were crossed with the little pollen which 

 could be obtained from the other flowers on the same 

 plant ; and other flowers were self- fertilised. From the 

 seeds thus produced four crossed and four self-fertilised 

 plants were raised, which were planted in the usual 

 manner on the opposite sides of two pots. All these 

 four crossed plants were inferior in height to their 

 opponents ; they averaged 78 18 inches, whilst the 

 four self-fertilised plants averaged 84 ' 8 inches ; or as 

 100 to 108.* This case, therefore, confirms the last. 

 Taking all the evidence together, we must conclude 

 that these strictly self-fertilised plants grew a little 

 taller, were heavier, and generally flowered before 

 those derived from a cross between two flowers on the 

 same plant. These latter plants thus present a won- 

 derful contrast with those derived from a cross between 

 two distinct individuals. 



* From one of these self-ferti- an average only 3*2 seeds per 



Used plants, spontaneously self- capsule; so that this plant had 



fertilised, I gathered twenty-four apparently inherited some of the 



capsules, and they contained on sterility of its parent. 



