Chap. V. HBTEEOSTTLED DIMORPHIC PLANTS. 221 



thirty other capsules, taken by hazard, of which twenty- 

 seven contained good seeds, averaging 35.5, with a maxi- 

 mum of 70; but if six poor capsules, each with less than 

 13 seeds, be excluded, the average rises to 42.5. These are 

 higher numbers than could be expected from either well- 

 characterised form if self-f ertilised ; and this high degree 

 of fertility accords with the view that the male organs be- 

 longed to one form, and the female organs partially 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-styled plants produced sixteen plants, which all 

 proved equal-styled, and resembled their parents in all the 

 above-specified respects. The stamens, however, in one 

 plant were seated higher up the tube of the corolla than in 

 the true long-styled form; in another plant almost all the 

 anthers were contabescent. These sixteen plants were the 

 grandchildren of the four original plants which it is be- 

 lieved were equal-styled; so that this abnormal condition 

 was faithfully transmitted, probably through three, and 

 certainly through two, generations. The fertility of one 

 of these grandchildren was carefully observed ; six flowers 

 were fertilised with pollen from the same flower, and 

 produced six capsules, containing on an average 68 seeds, 

 with a maximum of 82 and a minimum of 40. Thirteen 

 capsules spontaneously self-fertilised yielded an average 

 of 53.2 seeds, with the astonishing maximum in one of 97 

 seeds. In no legitimate union has so high an average as 

 68 seeds been observed by me, or nearly so high a maximum 

 as 82 and 97. These plants, therefore, not only have lost 

 their proper heterostyled structure and peculiar functional 

 powers, but have acquired an abnormal grade of fertility 

 — unless, indeed, their high fertility may be accounted for 

 by the stigmas receiving pollen from the circumjacent an- 

 thers at exactly the most favourable period. 



With respect to Mr. Duck's lot in Table 31, seed was 

 saved from a single plant, of which the form was not ob- 

 served, and this produced nine equal-styled and twenty 

 long-styled plants. The equal-styled resembled in all re- 

 spects those previously described; and eight of their cap- 

 sules spontaneously self -fertilised contained on an average 

 44.4 seeds, with a maximum of 61 and a minimum of 23. 



