Chap. V. HETEEOSTYLED DIMORPHIC PLANTS. 



Table 31. 

 Primula Sinensis. 



219 



raised the two forms of the present species in exactly the same 

 number from flowers which had been leyitimately crossed. The 

 preponderance in the above table of the long-styled form over 

 the short-styled (in the proportion of 134 to 51) results from gar- 

 deners generally collecting seed from self-fertilised flowers ; and 

 the long-styled flowers produce spontaneously much more seed 

 (as shown in the first chapter) than the short-styled, owing to the 

 anthers of the long-styled form being placed low down in the 

 corolla, so that, when the flowers fall off, the anthers are dragged 

 over the stigma ; and we now also know that long-styled plants, 

 when self-fertilised, very generally reproduce long-styled off- 

 spring. From the consideration of this table, it occurred to 

 me in the year 1862, that almost all the plants of the Chinese 

 primrose cultivated in England would so&ner or later become 

 long-styled or equal-styled; and now, at the close of 1876, I 

 have had five small collections of plants examined, and almost 

 all consisted of long-styled, with some more or less well-cha- 

 racterised equal-styled plants, but with not one short-styled. 



With respect to the equal-styled plants in the table, Mr. Hor- 

 wood raised from purchased seeds four plants, which he re- 

 membered were certainly not long-styled, but either short or 

 equal-styled, probably the latter. These four plants were kept 

 separate and allowed to fertilise themselves ; from their seed the 

 seventeen plants in the table were raised, all of which proved 

 equal-styled. The stamens stood low down in the corolla as in 

 the long-styled form ; and the stigmas, which were globular and 



