Chap. III. LINUM GEANDIFLOEUM. 87 



seed. This confirms my suspicion that some of the 

 few capsules produced by the foregoing seventeen 

 short-styled plants were the product of accidental 

 legitimate fertilisation. Other flowers on the same 

 plant were fertilised by Hildebrand with pollen from 

 the long-styled form, and all produced fruit.* 



The absolute sterility (judging from the experi- 

 ments of 1861) of the long-styled plants with their 

 own-form pollen led me to examine into its apparent 

 cause; and the results are so curious that they are 

 worth giving in detail. The experiments were tried 

 on plants grown in pots and brought successively 

 into the house. 



First. Pollen from a short-styled plant was placed 

 on the five stigmas of a long-styled flower, and these, 

 after thirty hours, were found deeply penetrated by a 

 multitude of pollen-tubes, far too numerous to be 

 counted; the stigmas had also become discoloured 

 and twisted. I repeated this experiment on another 

 flower, and in eighteen hours the stigmas were pene- 

 trated by a multitude of long pollen-tubes. This is 

 what might have been expected, as the union is a 

 legitimate one. The converse experiment was likewise 

 tried, and pollen from a long-styled flower was placed 

 on the stigmas of a short-styled flower, and in twenty- 

 four hours the stigmas were discoloured, twisted, and 

 penetrated by numerous pollen-tubes ; and this, again, 

 is what might have been expected, as the union was 

 a legitimate one. 



Secondly. Pollen from a long-styled flower was placed 

 on all five stigmas of a long-styled flower on a separate 

 plant : after nineteen hours the stigmas were dissected, 

 and only a single pollen-grain had emitted a tube, 



' Bot. Zeitung,' Jan. 1, 1864, p. 2. 



