238 ILLEGITIMATE OFFSPRING OF CHAP. V. 



an almost exactly intermediate condition in its female organs 

 between the long- and short-styled forms, and consequently, 

 when self-fertilised, yielded a low average of seed. If we add 

 together all the experiments which I made on the equal-styled 

 plants, 41 spontaneously self r fertilised capsules (insects having 

 been excluded) gave an average of 34 seeds, which is exactly the 

 same number as the parent-plant yielded in Edinburgh. Thirty- 

 four flowers, fertilised with pollen from the short-styled cowslip 

 (and this is an analogous union), produced 17 capsules, contain- 

 ing an average of 33 8 seeds. It is a rather singular circum- 

 stance, for which I cannot account, that 20 flowers, artificially fer- 

 tilised on one occasion with pollen from the same plants yielded 

 only ten capsules, containing the low average of 26 7 seeds. 



As bearing on inheritance, it may be added that 72 seed- 

 lings were raised from one of the red-flowered, strictly equal- 

 styled, self-fertilised plants descended from the similarly cha- 

 racterised Edinburgh plant. These 72 plants were there- 

 fore grandchildren of the Edinburgh plant, and they all bore, 

 as in the first generation, red flowers, with the exception of 

 one plant, which reverted in colour to the common cowslip. 

 In regard to structure, nine plants were truly long-styled 

 and had their stamens seated low down in the corolla in the 

 proper position ; the remaining 63 plants were equal-styled, 

 though the stigma in about a dozen of them stood a little below 

 the anthers. We thus see that the anomalous combination in the 

 same flower, of the male and female sexual organs which properly 

 exist in the two distinct forms, was inherited with much force. 

 Thirty-six seedlings were also raised from long and short-styled 

 common cowslips, crossed with pollen from the equal-styled 

 variety. Of these plants one alone was equal-styled, 20 were 

 short-styled, but with the pistil in three of them rather too 

 long, and the remaining 15 were long-styled. In this case we 

 have an illustration of the difference between simple inheritance 

 and prepotency of transmission ; for the equal-styled variety, 

 when self-fertilised, transmits its character, as we have just 

 seen, with much force, but when crossed with the common 

 cowslip cannot withstand the greater power of transmission 

 of the latter. 



POLMONABIA. 



I have little to say on this genus. I obtained seeds of P. offi- 

 from a garden where the long-styled form alono 



