88 THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 



and more sterile hybrids produce few flowers, and are 

 weak, miserable dwarfs; exactly similar cases occur with 

 the illegitimate offspring of various dimorphic and tri- 

 morphic plants. 



Altogether there is the closest identity in character 

 and behavior between illegitimate plants and hybrids. It 

 is hai'dly an exaggeration to maintain that illegitimate 

 plants are hybrids, produced within the limits of the 

 same species by the improper union of certain forms, 

 while ordinary hybrids are produced from an improper 

 union between so-called distinct species. "We have also 

 already seen that there is the closest similarity in all 

 respects between first illegitimate unions and first crosses 

 between distinct species. This will perhaps be made 

 more fully apparent by an illustration; we may suppose 

 that a botanist found two well-marked varieties (and such 

 occur) of the long-styled form of the trimorphic Lythrum 

 salicaria, and that he determined to try by crossing 

 whether they were specifically distinct. He would find 

 that they yielded only about one-fifth of the proper 

 number of seed, and that they behaved in all the other 

 above specified respects as if they had been two distinct 

 species. But to make the case sure, he would raise 

 plants from his supposed hybridized seed, and he would 

 find that the seedlings were miserably dwarfed and utterly 

 sterile, and that they behaved in all other respects like 

 ordinary hybrids. He might then maintain that he had 

 actually proved, in accordance with the common view, 

 that his two varieties were as good and as distinct 

 species as any in the world; but he would be completely 

 mistaken. 



The facts now given on dimorphic and trimorphic 



I 



