228 FAGOPYEUM ESCULENTUM. Chap. VI. 



XXVII. POLYGONE^). Fagoptrum ksculentum. 



This plant was discovered by Hildebrand to be heterostyled, 

 that is, to present, like the species of Primula, a long-styled and a 

 short-styled form, which are adapted for reciprocal fertilisation. 

 Therefore the following comparison of the growth of the crossed 

 and self-fertilised seedlings is not fair, for we do not know 

 whether the difference in their heights may not be wholly due to 

 the illegitimate fertilisation of the self-fertilised flowers. 



I obtained seeds by legitimately crossing flowers on long-styled 

 and short-styled plants, and by fertilising other flowers on both 

 forms with pollen from the same plant. Eather more seeds wero 

 obtained by the former than by the latter process ; and the 

 legitimately crossed seeds were heavier than an equal number 

 of the illegitimately self-fertilised seeds, in the ratio of 100 to 82. 

 Crossed and self-fertilised seeds from the short-styled parents, 

 after germinating on sand, were planted in pairs on the opposite 

 sides of a large pot ; and two similar lots of seeds from long- 

 styled parents were planted in a like manner on the opposite 

 sides of two other pots. In all three pots the legitimately crossed 

 seedlings, when a few inches in height, were taller than the self- 

 fertilised ; and in all three pots they flowered before them by one 

 or two days. When fully grown they were all cut down close 

 to the ground, and as I was pressed for time, they were placed 

 in a long row, the cut end of one plant touching the tip of 

 another, and the total length of the legitimately crossed plants 

 was 47 ft. 7 in., and of the illegitimately self-fertilised plants 

 32 ft. 8 in. Therefore the average height of the fifteen crossed 

 plants in all three pots was 38 * 06 inches, and that of the fifteen 

 self-fertilised plants 26 ' 13 inches ; or as 100 to 69. 



XXVIII. CHENOPODIACE^J. Beta vulgaris. 



A single plant, no others growing in the same garden, was 

 left to fertilise itself, and the self-fertilised seeds were collected. 

 Seeds were also collected from a plant growing in the midst of a 

 large bed in another garden ; and as the incoherent pollen ia 

 abundant, the seeds of this plant will almost certainly have been 

 the product of a cross between distinct plants by means of the 

 wind. Some of the two lots of seeds were sown on the opposite 

 sides of two very large pots; and the young seedlings were 

 thinned, so that an equal but considerable number was left on 

 the two sides. These plants were thus subjected to very severe 



