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Show 214 ILLEGITIMATE OFFSPRING OF CHAP. v. decide which ought to be considered good. In order to avoid over-estimating the infertility of the several illegitimate unions, I have taken the normal standard as low as possible. From the foregoing twenty-seven illegitimate plants, fertilised with their own-form pollen, twenty-five seedling grandchildren were raised ; and these were all long-styled; so that from the two illegitimate generations fifty-two plants were raised, and all without exc~ption proved long-sty led. These grandchildren grew vigorously, and soon exceeded in height two other lots of illegiti1nate seedlings of different parentage and one lot of equal-styled seedlings presently to be described. Hence I expected that they would have turned out highly ornamental plants; but when they flowered, they seemed, as my gardener remarked, to have gone back to the wild state; for the petals were pale-coloured, narrow, sometimes not touching each other, flat, generally deeply notched in the middle, but not flexuous on the margin, and with the yellow eye or centre conspicuous. Altogether these flowers were strikingly different from those of their progenitors; and this, I think, can only be accounted for on the principle of reversion. Most of the anthers on one plant were contabescent. Seventeen flowers on the grandchildren were illegitimately fertilised with pollen taken from other seedlings of the same lot, and produced fourteen capsules, containing on an average 29 · 2 seeds; but they ought to have contained about 35 seeds. Fifteen flowers legitimately fertilised with pollen from an illegitimate short-styled plant (belonging to the lot next to be described) produced fourteen capsules, containing an average of 46 seeds; they ought to have contained at least 50 seeds. Hence these grandchildren of illegitimate descent ap- CHAP. V. HETEROSTYLED DIMORPHIC PLANTS. 215 pear to have lost, though only in a very slight degree, their full fertility. We will now turn to the short-sty led form : from a plant of this kind, fertilised with its own-form pollen, I raised, during February 1862, eight seedlings, seven of which were short-styled and one long-styled. They grew slowly, and never attained to the full stature of ordinary plants; some of them flowered precociously, and others late in the season. Four flowers on these short-sty led seedlings and four on the one long-sty led seedling were illegitimately fertilised with their ownform pollen and produced only three capsules, containing on an average 23 · 6 seeds, with a maximum of 29; but we cannot judge of their fertility from so few capsules; and I have greater doubts about the normal standard for this union than about any other; but I believe that rather above 25 seeds would be a fair estimate. Eight flowers on these same short-styled plants, and the one long-styled illegitimate plant were reciprocally and legitimately crossed; they produced five capsules, which contained an average of 28 · 6 seeds, with a maximum of 36. A reciprocal cross between legitimate plants of the two forms would have yielded an average of at least 57 seeds, with a possible maximum of 74 seeds; so that these illegitimate plants were sterile when legitimately crossed. I succeeded in raising from the above seven shortstyled illegitimate plants, fertilised with their ownform pollen, only six plants-grandchildren of the first union. These, like their parents, were of low stature, and had so poor a constitution that four died before flowering. With ordinary plants it has been a rare event with me to have more than a single plant die out of a large lot. The two grandchildren which |