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Show 132 DIANTHU S CARYOPHYLLUS. CHAP. IV. TABLE XLV. ~· caria oculata. ~s .- Crossed Plants. \ Self-fertilised T;lants. No. of Pot. ---- -- 1--1- Inches. Inches. 32:l 19 I. 33 '8 41 38 41 28~ - - 37 ~ 36 II. 36 g s2a 38 35~ - 1- - 1- i 36 III. 44~ 39g 20~ 39 vO~ 1- 30~ 36 IV. 31 9 33~ 29 24 38~ - -- .- 32 v. 30§ Crowded. - 517·63 503·3G Total in inches. I - I DIANTHUS CARYOPHYLLUS. . . trongly proteran d rous, and . there- The common carnatiOn IS s . ects for fertilisatiOn. I fore depends to a large exten~ ~[.~~ ~~: flowers, but I dare sa~ have seen only hu~ble-bees VIS: ts ~otorious that if pure se.ecl.Is other insects likewise do s~. I ar * to prevent the vaneties d ·. d the greatest care IS necess Y. ,· . The pollen esrre , d n from 1ntercrossing. which grow in the same gar e two stigmas in the same is generally shed and lost befo~e b~~ertilised. I was therefore flower diverge and are ready t . . . n ollen from the same often forced to use for self-fertihsatw ~ ton two occasions, plant instead of from t~e sa:me flower. no; able to detect anY when I attended to this pmnt, I wa~ roduced by these two marked difference in the number of see s p forms of self-fertilisation. * , Gardeners' Ohronicle,' UH7, p. 268. CHAP. IV. CROSSED AND SELF-FERTILISED PLANTS. 133 Several single-flowered carnations were planted in good soil, and were all covered with a net. Eight flowers were eros ed with pollen from a distinct plant and yielded six capsules, containing on an average 88 · 6 seeds, with a maximuin in one of 112 seeds. Ejght other flowers were self-fertiljsed in the manner above described, and yielded seven capsules containing on an average 82 seeds, with a maximum in one of 112 seeds. So that there was very little difference jn the number of seeds produced by cross-fertilisation and self-fertilisation, viz., as 100 to 92. As these plants were covei'ed by a net, they produced spontaneously only a few capsules containing any seeds, and these few may perhaps be attributed to the action of Thrips and other minute insects which haunt the flowers. A large majority of the spontaneously self-fertilised capsules produced by several plants contained no seeds, or only a single one. Excluding these latter capsules, I counted the seeds in eighteen of the finest ones, and these contained on an average 18 seeds. One of the plants was spontaneously fclf-fertile jn a higher degree than any of the others. On another occasion a singl6 covered-up plant produced spontaneously eighteen capsules, but only two of these contained any seed, namely 10 and 15. . Crossed and self-fertilised Plants of the First Generation.-The many seeds obtained from the above crossed and artificially self-fertilised flowers were sown out of doors, and two large beds of seedlings, closely adjoining one another, thus raised. This was the first plant on which I experimented, and I had not then formed any regular scheme of operation. vVhen the two lots were in full flower, I measured roughly a large number of plants but record only that the crossed were on an average fully 4 inches taller than the self-fertibsed. Judging from subsequent measurements, we may assume that the crossed plants, were about 28 inches, and the self-fertilised about 24 inches in height; and this will give us a ratio of 100 to 86. Out of a large number of plants, four of the crossed ones flowered before any one of the self- fertilised plants. Thirty flowers on these crossed plants of the first generation were again crossed with pollen from a distinct plant of the fame lot, and yielded twenty-nine capsules, containing on an average 55·62 seeds, with a maximum in one of 110 seeds. Thirty flowers on the self-fertilised plants were again selffertilised; eight of them with pollen from the same flower, and the remainder with pollen from another flower on the same |
