100 HETEROSTYLED DIMORPHIC PLANTS. CHAP. IIL 



short-styled plants of the two previous species appa- 

 rently evince some slight capacity for fertilisation with 

 their own-form pollen, these three capsules may have 

 been the product of self-fertilisation. 



Besides the three species now described, the yellow- 

 flowered L. corymbiferum is certainly heterostyled, 

 as is, according to Planchon,* L. salsoloides. This 

 botanist is the only one who seems to have inferred 

 that heterostylisin might have some important func- 

 tional bearing. Dr. Alefeld, who has made a special 

 study of the genus, saysf that about half of the sixty- 

 five species known to him are heterostyled. This is 

 the case with L. trigynum, which differs so much from 

 the other species that it has been formed by him into 

 a distinct genus. J According to the same author, 

 none of the species which inhabit America and the 

 Cape of Good Hope are heterostyled. 



I have examined only three homostyled species, 

 namely, L. usitatissimum, angustifolium, and catharti- 

 cum. I raised 111 plants of a variety of the first-named 

 species, and these, when protected under a net, all 

 produced plenty of seed. The flowers, according to 

 H. Muller, are frequented by bees and moths. With 

 respect to L. catharticum, the same author shows that 

 the flowers are so constructed that they can freely 

 fertilise themselves ; but if visited by insects they 

 might be cross-fertilised. He has, however, only once 

 seen the flowers thus visited during the day ; but it 



* Hooker's ' London Journal of Journal of Botany,' 1848, vol. 



Botany,' 1848, vol. vii. p. 174. vii. p. 525) to be provided with 



t ' Bot. Zeitung,' Sep. 18th, " staminibus exsertis ;" another 



1863, p. 281. with " stylis staminibus longiori 



J It is not improliabie that the bus," and another has " stamiiu 



allied genus, Hugonia, is hetero- 5, majora, stylos longesuperantin." 



styled, for one species is said ' Die Befruohtu ig drr Blu 



by Planchon (Hooker's ' London men,' &c., p. 1GS. 



