214 ILLEGITIMATE OFFSPEING OF Chap. V 



decide which ought to be considered good. In order 

 to avoid over-estimating the infertility of the several 

 illegitimate unions, I have taken the normal standard 

 as low as possible. 



From the foregoing twenty-seven illegitimate plants, 

 fertilised with their own-form pollen, twenty-five seed- 

 ling grandchildren were raised ; and these were all 

 long-styled ; so that from the two illegitimate gene- 

 rations fifty-two plants were raised, and all without 

 exception proved long-styled. These grandchildren 

 grew vigorously, and soon exceeded in height two 

 other lots of illegitimate seedlings of different parent- 

 age and one lot of equal-styled seedlings presently to 

 be described. Hence I expected that they would have 

 turned out highly ornamental plants ; but when they 

 flowered, they seemed, as my gardener remarked, to 

 have gone back to the wild state ; for the petals were 

 pale-coloured, narrow, sometimes not touching each 

 other, flat, generally deeply notched in the middle, 

 but not flexuous on the margin, and with the yellow 

 eye or centre conspicuous. Altogether these flowers 

 were strikingly different from those of their pro- 

 genitors; and this, I think, can only be accounted 

 for on the principle of reversion. Most of the anthers 

 on one plant were contabescent. Seventeen flowers 

 on the grandchildren were illegitimately fertilised 

 with pollen taken from other seedlings of the same 

 lot, and produced fourteen capsules, containing on an 

 average 29 • 2 seeds ; but they ought to have con- 

 tained about 35 seeds. Fifteen flowers legitimately 

 fertilised with pollen from an illegitimate short-styled 

 plant (belonging to the lot next to be described) pro- 

 duced fourteen capsules, containing an average of 46 

 seeds ; they ought to have contained at least 50 seeds. 

 Hence these grandchildren of illegitimate descent ap- 



