Chap. VIII. ON SELF-FERTILISED PLANTS. 309 



than those which were first raised from the purchased 

 seeds. This dark purple variety did not appear, as 

 far as my gardener and myself could recollect, before 

 the fifth or sixth self-fertilised generation. However 

 this may have been, it became, through continued 

 self-fertilisation and the cultivation of the plants 

 under uniform conditions, perfectly constant, to the 

 exclusion of every other variety. 



Dianthus caryophyllus. The self-fertilised plants of 

 the third generation all bore flowers of exactly the 

 same pale rose-colour ; and in this respect they differed 

 quite remarkably from the plants growing in a large 

 bed close by and raised from seeds purchased from the 

 same nursery garden. In this case it is not improbable 

 that some of the parent-plants which were first self- 

 fertilised may have borne flowers thus coloured ; but 

 as several plants were self-fertilised in the first genera- 

 tion, it is extremely improbable that all bore flowers 

 of exactly the same tint as those of the self-fertilised 

 plants of the third generation. The intercrossed plants 

 of the third generation likewise produced flowers 

 almost, though not quite so uniform in tint as those 

 of the self- fertilised plants. 



Petunia violacea. In this case I happened to record 

 in my notes that the flowers on the parent-plant which 

 was first self- fertilised were of a " dingy purple colour." 

 In the fifth self-fertilised generation, every one of the 

 twenty-one self-fertilised plants growing in pots, and 

 all the many plants in a long row out of doors, 

 produced flowers of absolutely the same tint, namely, 

 of a dull, rather peculiar and ugly flesh colour ; there- 

 fore, considerably unlike those on the parent-plant. I 

 believe that this change of colour supervened quite 

 gradually ; but I kept no record, as the point did not 

 interest me until I was struck with the uniform tint 



