on Inconspicuous Flowers . 259 
the crossed showed a decided advantage over the self-fertilized, 
being as 100 to 88. 
III. — Stellaria media. 
This plant appears to be not invariably self-fertilized, as it 
is occasionally visited by insects for its nectar. But as it 
flowers through the winter as well as in summer, it must, in the 
absence of insects, depend on self-fertilization ; besides which, 
it is very inconspicuous, except when growing luxuriantly in 
large masses. Some young plants of Stellaria were growing 
in a flower-pot in a greenhouse, and these were planted in 
separate pots. One of them was netted, and some of its 
flowers were crossed with pollen from one of the other plants 
after their own stamens had been removed whilst still unripe. 
Other flowers on this plant were marked at the same time for 
self-fertilization, and allowed to fertilize themselves. In this 
case the capsules of the cross-fertilized flowers were found to 
contain rather fewer seeds than those of the self-fertilized ones, 
the average number in the former capsules being eight, and in 
the latter ten. The seedlings from the two lots were planted on 
the opposite sides of seed-pans, and were first measured when 
in a very young stage before the stems had become decumbent. 
The fifteen crossed seedlings measured i6 T 5 g- inches, and the 
fifteen self-fertilized 1 5 T 2 F , but the four tallest crossed were to 
the four tallest self-fertilized as 100 to 81. When full-grown 
the longest branch of each was measured, with the result as 
in Table III (see p. 260). 
Columns D, E, F of Table III show that in nearly every case 
the crossed plants slightly exceed the self-fertilized in length, 
although the total only gives a relation of 100 to 95. How- 
ever, in a procumbent and much branched plant of this kind, 
a comparison oi the lengths of the longest branch in each pair 
is not a very good test ; for, whenever the longest branch of 
the one exceeds the longest branch of the other, the shorter 
branches of the stronger plant would probably also exceed 
the shorter branches of the weaker plant. By weight, which 
is a better test in a case of this kind, the cross-fertilized were 
