220 ILLEGITIMATE OFFSPEING OF Chap. V. 



smooth, were either completely surrounded by the anthers, or 

 stood close above them. My son WilKam made drawings for 

 me, by the aid of the camera, of the pollen of one of the above 

 equal-styled plants ; and, in accordance with the position of the 

 stamens, the grains resembled in their small size those of the 

 long-styled form. He also examined pollen from two equal-styled 

 plants at Southampton : and in both of them the grains dif- 

 fered extremely in size in the same anthers, a large number 

 being small and shrivelled, whilst many were fully as large as 

 those of the short-styled form and rather more globular. It is 

 probable that the large size of these grains was due, not to their 

 having assumed the character of the short-styled form, but to 

 monstrosity; for Max Wichura has observed pollen-grains of 

 monstrous size in certain hybrids. The vast number of the 

 small shrivelled grains in the above two cases explains the fact 

 that, though equal-styled plants are generally fertile in a high 

 degree, yet some of them yield few seeds. I may add that my 

 son compared, in 1875, the grains from two white-flowered 

 plants, in both of which the pistil projected above the anthers, 

 but neither were properly long-styled or equal-styled ; and in 

 the one in which the stigma projected most, the grains were 

 in diameter to those in the other plant, in which the stigma pro- 

 jected less, as 100 to 88; whereas the difference between the 

 grains from perfectly characterised long-styled and short-styled 

 plants is as 100 to 57. So that these two plants were in an 

 intermediate condition. To return to the 17 plants in the first 

 line of Table 31 : from the relative position of their stigmas and 

 anthers, they could hardly fail to fertilise themselves : and ac- 

 cordingly four of them spontaneously yielded no less than 180 

 capsules ; of these Mr. Horwood selected eight fine capsules for 

 sowing; and they included on an average 54 '8 seeds, with a 

 maximum of 72. He gave me thirty other capsules, taken 

 by hazard, of which twenty-seven contained good seeds, aver- 

 aging 35' 5, with a maximum of 70: but if six poor cap- 

 sules, each with less than 13 seeds, be excluded, the average 

 rises to 42 "5. These are higher numbers than could be ex- 

 pected from either well-characterised form if self-fertilised ; and 

 this high degree of fertility accords with the view that the 

 male organs belonged to one form, and the female organs par- 

 tially to the other form; so that a self-union in the case of the 

 equal-styled variety is in fact a legitimate union. 

 The seed saved from the above seventeen self-fertilised equal- 



