188 ILLEGITIMATE Oi"FSPIUXG OF CiUP. V. 



• CHAPTEE V. 



Illeqitimate Offspring of Heteeostyled Plantb. 



Ulugitimate offspring from all three forms of Lythrum salicaria — Their 

 dwarfed stature and steiility, some utterly barren, some fertile — 

 Oxalis, transmission of form to the legitimate and illegitimnte 

 seedlings — Primula Sinensis, illegitimate offspring in some degree 

 dwarfed and infertile — Equal-styled varieties of P. Sinensis, auri- 

 cula, farinosa, and elatior — P. vulgaris, red-flowered variety, illegi- 

 timate seedlings sterile— P. veris, illegitimate plants raised during 

 sftveralsueoessive generations, their dwarfed stature and sterility — 

 Equal-styled varieties of P. veris — Transmission of form by Pul- 

 monaria and Polygonum— Concluding remarks — Close parallelism 

 between illegitimate fertilisation and liybridism. 



We have hitherto treated of the fertility of the flowers 

 of heterostyled plants, when legitimately and illegiti- 

 mately fertilised. The present chapter will be devoted 

 to the character of their offspring or seedlings. Those 

 raised from legitimately fertilised seeds will be here 

 called legitimate seedlings or pZamfe/and those from 

 illegitimately fertilised seeds, illegitimate seedlings or 

 'plants. They differ chiefly in their degree of fertility, 

 and in their powers of growth or vigour. I will begin 

 with trimorphic plants, and I must remind the reader 

 that each of the three forms can be fertilised in six 

 different ways ; so that all three together can be ferti- 

 lised in eighteen different ways. For instance, a 

 long-styled form can be fertilised legitimately by the 

 longest stan:ens of the mid-styled and short-styled 

 iorms, and illegitimately by its o\vn-form mid-length 

 and shortest stamens, also by the mid-length stamens 

 of the mid-styled and by the shortest stamens of the 

 short-styled form ; so that the long-styled can be ferti- 



