154 On the Species of the Genus Primula in Essex. 
(in his ‘ Effects of Cross and Self-Fertilization in the Vegetable 
Kingdom ’) is a method which Nature takes every precaution 
to prevent, and only resorts to it when cross-fertilization fails 
to be effected. Even if some pollen gets on to the stigma of 
its own flower (or, in plants like Primulas on a flower of its 
own form), no perfect, and certainly no immediate, fertilizing 
action takes place; and if, twenty-four hours after, pollen 
from another plant (or in Primulas, from a plant of the 
opposite form) be placed upon the stigma, it at once obliterates 
all traces of the action of the first pollen, and fertilizes the 
ovules in a “legitimate” manner. The two forms are very 
constant. Darwin says:—“ I have examined a large number 
of flowers.and have never met with any transitional 
states between the two forms in plants growing in a state of 
Nature. There is never the slightest doubt under which form 
a plant ought to be classed.” 10 As will be seen in the next 
section of this paper, I also have examined a very large 
number of plants, and must beg leave to differ a little from 
Mr. Darwin on this point. I have met with a few equal-styled 
flowers, although I have seen nothing like the specimens 
Herr Breitenbacli observed in Germany. 11 Among other 
extraordinary plants, he met with two bearing equal-, short-, 
and long-styled flowers. In this case some most unusual 
disturbing element must have been at work, which, as my 
tables of observations will hereafter show, does not exist in 
Essex; and, like Mr. Darwin, I have heard of no other such 
case in Nature. Out of at least 13,200 Primula flowers 
examined, I have only met with forty flowers which could be 
described as equal-styled. I do not attach much importance 
to these, regarding them as due to imperfect development of 
the style, rather than as a reversion to any original state— 
indeed I suppose that, strictly speaking, they were not equal- 
styled at all, for, instead of having the anthers and stigma 
both on the same level at the top of the tube as should have 
been the case if truly equal-styled, they had the anthers half¬ 
way up, as in the long-styled form, while the stigma (which 
often showed signs of imperfection) was generally about on a 
level with them. Reference to the Tables given in the next 
section will afford further information concerning these 
flowers. Equal-stylism seems to appear more frequently in 
cultivated plants than among wild ones. My friend, Mr. 
Richardson, of Newcastle, found one Primrose plant bearing 
twenty-one long-styled flowers, and thirteen blossoms that 
10 ‘ Forms of Flowers,’ p. 17. 
11 Ibid., p. 34. 
