CHAP. V. HETEROSTYLED DIMORPHIC PLANTS. 225 



nature ; and this is the only instance of such an occurrence 

 known to me, with the exception of some wild plants of the 

 Oxlip a hybrid between P. veris and vulgaris which 

 were equal-styled. Herr Breitenbach's case is remarkable 

 in another way; for equal-styled flowers were found in 

 two instances on plants which bore both long-styled and 

 short-styled flowers. In every other instance these two 

 forms and the equal-styled variety have been produced by 

 distinct plants. 



PRIMULA VULGARIS, Brit. Fl. 

 Var. acaulls of Linn, and P. acaulis of Jacq. 



Var. rubra. Mr. Scott states * that this variety, 

 which grew in the Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, was 

 quite sterile when fertilised with pollen from the com- 

 mon primrose, as well as from a white variety of the 

 same species, but that some of the plants, when arti- 

 ficially fertilised with their own pollen, yielded a moder- 

 ate supply of seed. He was so kind as to send me some 

 of these self-fertilised seeds, from which I raised the 

 plants immediately to be described. I may premise 

 that the results of my experiments on the seedlings, 

 made on a large scale, do not accord with those by Mr. 

 Scott on the parent-plant. 



First, in regard to the transmission of form and 

 colour. The parent-plant was long-styled, and of a 

 rich purple colour. From the self-fertilised seed 23 

 plants were raised; of these 18 were purple of dif- 

 ferent shades, with two of them a little streaked and 

 freckled with yellow, thus showing a tendency to 

 reversion; and 5 were yellow, but generally with a 

 brighter orange centre than in the wild flower. All 

 the plants were profuse flowerers. All were long- 

 styled; but the pistil varied a good deal in length 



* 'Journal Proc. Linn. Soc.,' viii. (1864), p. 



