Chap. V. HETEEOSTYLED DIMOEPHIO PLANTS. 217 



illegitimate offspring, of which fifty-two were raised in 

 the course of two generations', were all long-styled.* 

 These plants grew vigorously ; but the flowers in one 

 instance were small, appearing as if they had reverted 

 to the wild state. In the first illegitimate generation 

 they were perfectly fertile, and in the second their 

 fertility was only very slightly impaired. With 

 respect to the short-styled plants, twenty-four out of 

 twenty-five of their illegitimate offspring were short- 

 styled. They were dwarfed in stature, and one lot of 

 grandchildren had so poor a constitution that four out 

 of six plants perished before flowering. The two sur- 

 vivors, when illegitimately fertilised with their own- 

 form pollen, were rather less fertile than they ought 

 to have been; but their loss of fertility was clearly 

 shown in a special and unexpected manner, namely, 

 when legitimately fertilised by 'other illegitimate 

 plants : thus altogether eighteen flowers were fertilised 

 in this manner, and yielded twelve capsules, which 

 included on an average only 28 "5 seeds, with a 

 maximum of 45. Now a legitimate short-styled plant 

 would have yielded, when legitimately fertilised, an 

 average of 64 seeds, with a possible maximum of 74. 

 This particular kind of infertility will perhaps be best 

 appreciated by a simile : we may assume that with 

 mankind six children would be born on an average from 

 an ordinary marriage ; but that only three would be 

 born from an incestuous marriage. According to the 

 analogy of Primula Sinensis, the children of such 



* Dr. Hildebrand, who first short-styled. From a short-styled 



called attention to this subject plant illegitimately fertilised with 



('Bot. Zeitung,' 1864, p. SI,' raised its own pollen he raised fourteen 



from a similar illegitimate union plants, cfwhich eleven were short- 



seventeen plants, of which four- styled and three long-styled, 

 teen were long-styled and three 



