0. W. Richardson 169 



Virginiima % x Mexicana </ gave 



20 % 15 d" or ? . 



Virginiana % x Virginiana ,^ gave 



17 $ 16 c/ or ? . 



The total of my recorded figures now stands 

 183 % 155 cT or 5 . 



The noteworthy fact is the persistent dominance of the females which 

 seems to fit a 9 to 7 ratio. The chief difficulty in this line of work is 

 classification — and I fear to a large extent this must remain a matter 

 of individual preference. At present I find it simpler to group all sterile 

 flowers with the sex to which they appear to belong, and to consider 

 males and hermaphrodites as one sex, rather than two, as it is almost 

 impossible to say that a given apparently male plant (e.g. a Virginiana) 

 will not set an occasional well-developed fruit or an occasional seed. 



Up to the present I have no recorded case of a female flowering plant 

 becoming male or hermaphrodite — once a female always a female. 



I have failed to produce by crossing species any fruit markedly larger 

 than either of its original parents, but I have not received the results of 

 Hautbois crosses. 



James Barnet in a description of the plants in the Society's garden 

 {Tr. Hurt. Soc. vi.) makes special mention of " Hudson Bay" and other 

 Canadian plants as giving large fruit — it is possible the key may lie in 

 these fruits slowly developed in the long light of the far North summer ; 

 when opportunity for continuous work comes once more I hope to make 

 use of some Canadian species. 



From a cross Virginiana x vesca I have now 5 F^ plants from selfed 

 F^ hermaphrodite plants, they are still too young to draw conclusions 

 from except that they have the leaf-colour of Virginiana and only one 

 has normal leaves, the remainder having five or six malformed. It is 

 not surprising that this cross has been generally considered sterile. Out 

 of some 200 plants fiowering freely in the open I found 4 females which 

 set one or two seeds on each plant and 3 hermaphrodites which behaved 

 in the same manner. Last year from 4 large free flowering runners, 

 obtained from the most fertile of these 3 hermaphrodites, I obtained 13 

 seeds five of which were fertile. I counted 260 flowers on one of these 

 plants ! No flower set more than two seeds, and any one might have set 

 from 80—150. 



From 12 chance seeds gathered from F^'s in the open, with garden 

 varieties in rows next to them, I obtained four plants, which produced 



