IIOMOTYPOSIS IN THE VE(4ETAI!LE KINGDOM. 
o 1 o 
the whole ground covered with low plants of Malva Rotxindifolia.^'' On inquiry I 
found that a cottage had recently stood on the site, and that the cottagers kept in 
their herb-bed a small clump of this plant for the preparation of a local ointment of 
high repute. When the cottage was removed the mallow had spread over the whole 
patch, I believe very little by seed, but largely by stolons. This seemed to provide 
excellent material ready to hand, and from it we can draw some conclusions as to the 
influence of such a division on the degree of resemblance of like parts. It will be 
remembered that Darwix,! in experimenting on Onganuin vulgare, found that 
cross-fertilisation of flowers on plants which had separate roots, but had spread by 
stolons from the same individual, presented no advantage over self-fertilisation, and 
he concluded that this arose from the fact that the plants were really one and the 
same individual so far as such j^rocesses were concerned. If this were so in the case 
of my mallow, we ought to find a great reduction in the relationship of undiffer¬ 
entiated like organs. Two points struck me at the outset—the small variability in 
the segmentation of the seed vessels and the low mean value (13‘7) compared witli 
that (15) given in botanical works. I was able to collect 127 plants; of these, 76 
had more than 26 capsules, some many more, and of these I took 26 only ; 51 plants 
had fewer than 26 capsules, and although I took buds in every stage of develo})ment 
I could not make up my number to this, often only obtaining 10, or even fewer. As 
the |)otatoes were being removed the mallows had to be taken U23 before the seeds were 
rij^e, and the seed-vessels artificially dried. The counting of the segments jjroved a 
very laborious task. To Miss M. Notcutt I owe a considerable portion of the 
counting. The buds and small seed vessels requiring a lens or small microscojje were 
counted Ijy Dr. Lee, Mr. IIadeord Sharpe, and myself I am responsible for the 
tabulation of the data and for all the numerical calculations. 
The 127 plants gave rise to 57,740 jjairs distributed tbus :— 
Table XVI.— Malva Rotiindifoiia. 
Xumher of Segments in the First Seed-vessel. 
1 
10. 
11. 
12. 
i 
13. U. i 15. 
1 
16. 
17. 
18. 
19. 
Totals. 
10 
10 
21 
60 
78 
89 
36 
5 
302 
11 
21 
61 
202 
270 
185 
57 
7 
— 
-- 
— 
809 
12 
60 
202 
8.50 
1802 
1905 
637 
95 
1 
— 
— 
5552 
i;3 
78 
270 
1802 
5036 
6195 
2109 
321 
8 
0 
5 
16127 
11 
89 
185 
1905 
6195 
9760 
1293 
653 
13 
0 
10 
23103 
15 
36 
57 
637 
2109 
1293 
2128 
386 
5 
0 
8 
10259 
16 
5 
7 
95 
321 
653 
386 
60 
D 
0 
2 
1531 
17 
-- 
— 
1 
8 
13 
5 
2 
— 
— 
— 
29 
18 
— 
■— 
-- 
0 
0 
0 
0 
— 
— 
— 
0 
19 
— 
■ — ■ 
.— 
5 
10 
8 
0 
— 
— 
— 
25 
Totals 
.302 
809 
5552 
1G127 
23103 
10259 
1531 
29 
0 
25 
57710 
* Misnamed “ marsh mallow ” throughout this district of Buckiugharashire. 
t ‘ClOSS and Self-fertilisation in Plants,’ krd edition, p. 91 
