Chap. ni. LINUM GEANDIFLOEUM. 83 



stigmas. Considering the slight and variable differ- 

 ences between the two forms of this Linum, it is not 

 surprising that hitherto they have been overlooked. 



In 1861 I had eleven plants in my garden, eight of 

 which were long-styled, and three short-styled. Two 

 very fine long-styled plants grew m a bed a hundred 

 yards off all the others, and separated from them by a 

 screen of evergreens. I marked twelve flowers, and 

 placed on their stigmas a little pollen from the short- 

 styled plants. The pollen of the two forms is, as 

 stated, identical in appearance ; the stigmas of the 

 long-styled flowers were already thickly covered with 

 their own pollen — so thickly that I could not find one 

 bare stigma, and it was late in the season, namely, 

 September 15th. Altogether, it seemed almost childish 

 to expect any result. Nevertheless from my experi- 

 ments on Primula, I had faith, and did not hesitate to 

 make the trial, but certainly did not anticipate the 

 full result which was obtained. The germens of these 

 twelve flowers all swelled, and ultimately six fine cap- 

 sules (the seed of which germinated on the following 

 year) and two poor capsules were produced ; only four 

 capsules shanking off. These same two long-styled 

 plants produced, in the course of the summer, a 

 vast number of flowers, the stigmas of which were 

 covered with their own pollen ; but they all proved 

 absolutely barren, and their germens did not even 

 swell. 



The nine other plants, six long-styled and tliree 

 short-styled, grew not very far apart in my flower- 

 garden. Four of these long-styled plants produced no 

 seed-capsules ; the fifth produced two ; and the remain- 

 ing one grew so close to a short-styled plant that 

 their branches touched, and this produced twelve cap- 

 sules, but they were poor ones. The case was different 



