Robert Ornduff, Villarsia exaltata 
807 
carried out between 1986 and 1994. It included self-pollinations, intramorph 
xenogamous pollinations, and intermorph pollinations. Each pollination was carried 
out by removing a dehisced anther from the desired pollen parent with fine forceps 
and applying the anther to the stigma of the prospective seed parent. The pedicel of 
the latter flower was tagged with a string tag indicating the nature of the cross and 
the date. A minimum of five pollinations of each individual seed parent x pollen 
parent combination was attempted, but in several instances the number achieved 
was lower than this. In approximately a month's time, as the capsules were nearly 
mature, they were harvested, placed individually in labeled coin envelopes, and the 
seeds were counted. Mean seed production figures with standard deviations were 
calculated for each combination and each type of pollination. 
Results 
Pollen stainability and size Pollen stainabilities of five pin plants of the Coffs 
Harbour progeny ranged from 86% to 100% with a mean of 93.2% for the five 
plants. Pollen stainabilities of three thrum plants in that progeny ranged from 78% 
to 97% with a mean of 89.3% for the three plants. These figures suggest that the 
pollen of both morphs has high levels of viability. Mean pollen diameters of 38.4 
± 1.6 ( plant L-2), 38.8 ±1.4 (L-1), and 41.3 ± 2.3 (L-5) pm were obtained for three 
pin plants; mean pollen diameters of 42.7 ± 2.5 (S-9), 45.4 ±2.1 (S-8), and 48.6 ± 2.7 
(S-7) pm were obtained for three thrum plants. Two pin plants sampled had smaller 
pollen grains than two thrum plants, but one plant of each morph had pollen 
grains of equal size, indicating that pollen sizes are not consistently different 
between the two morphs. 
Seed-set in the Wilsons Promontory progeny Since only four thrum plants of the 
Wilsons Promontory sample were available, the results of the pollination program 
using these plants will be summarized and not presented in tabular form. Three of 
the four thrum plants were self-pollinated five times; one seed was produced from 
these 15 self-pollinations, with a mean of 0.07 seeds per self-pollination. All four 
thrum plants were pollinated by two other thrum plants, with a total of 40 intramorph 
xenogamous pollinations carried out. One seed was produced by each of two thrum 
plants after such pollinations, with a mean seed-set of 0.05 seeds per pollination. 
Mean seed-sets from self-pollinations and from xenogamous intramorph pollinations 
in this sample of thrum plants thus were equivalent. 
The following results were obtained from the Coffs Harbour progeny. 
Self-pollinations (Table 1) The collective mean seed-set of the six pin plants following 
self-pollination was 2.6 seeds per pollination and of the four thrum plants it was 1.3 
seeds per pollination. 
Intramorph xenogamous (= interplant) pollinations (Table 1) The six pin plants 
were pollinated by three or more other pin plants serving as pollen parents. The 
mean seed-set of these pin plants following intramorph xenogamous pollinations 
was 4.3 seeds per pollination. The four thrum plants were pollinated by one or more 
other thrum plants serving as pollen parents. The mean seed-set of these thrum 
plants following intramorph xenogamous pollinations was 0.1 seeds per pollination. 
Intermorph pollinations (Table 1) Each of six pin plants was pollinated by all four 
thrum plants serving as pollen parents. The mean seed-set of pin plants following 
these pollinations was 21.1 seeds per pollination. Each of the four thrum plants was 
pollinated by all six pin plants. The mean seed-set of thrum plants following these 
pollinations was 16.7 seeds per pollination. 
