194 ILLEGITIMATE OFFSPRING OP CHAP. V. 



BO small and shrivelled that I doubt whether they would have 

 germinated. 



Plants 3 and 4. These two long-styled plants, after being 

 freely and legitimately fertilised during 1863 by the same ille- 

 gitimate mid-styled plant as in the last case, were as miserably 

 sterile as No. 2. 



Plant 5. This long-styled plant, after flowering in 18G3 close 

 to an illegitimate mid-styled plant, yielded only four capsules, 

 which altogether included only five seeds. During 1864, 18G5, 

 and 1866, it was surrounded either by illegitimate or legitimate 

 plants of the other two forms ; but it did not yield a single 

 capsule. It was a superfluous experiment, but I likewise arti- 

 ficially fertilised in a legitimate manner twelve flowers ; but not 

 one of these produced a capsule ; so that this plant was almost 

 absolutely barren. 



Plant 6. This long-styled plant, after flowering during the 

 favourable year of 1866, surrounded by illegitimate plants of 

 the other two forms, did not produce a single capsule. 



Plant 7. This long-styled plant was the most fertile of the 

 eight plants of the first lot. During 1865 it was surrounded by 

 illegitimate plants of various parentage, many of which were 

 highly fertile, and must thus have been legitimately fertilised. 

 It produced a good many capsules, ten of which yielded an 

 average of 36 1 seeds, with a maximum of 47 and a minimum 

 of 22 ; so that this plant produced 39 per cent, of the full 

 number of seeds. During 1864 it was surrounded by legitimate 

 and illegitimate plants of the other two forms; and nine 

 capsules (one poor one being rejected) yielded an average of 

 41 9 seeds, with a maximum of 56 and a minimum of 28 ; so 

 that, under these favourable circumstances, this plant, the most 

 fertile of the first lot, did not yield, when legitimately fertilised, 

 quite 45 per cent, of the full complement of seeds. 



In the second lot of plants in the present class, 

 descended from the long-styled form, almost certainly 

 fertilised with pollen from its own mid-length stamens, 

 the plants, as already stated, were not nearly so dwarfed 

 or so sterile as in the first lot. All produced plenty 

 of capsules. I counted the number of seeds in only 

 throe plants, viz. Nos. 8, 9, and 10. 



