If we take all six legitimate unions together, and all twelve illegitimate unions together, we get the following results:
TABLE 4.26.
Column 1: Nature of union. Column 2: Number of Flowers fertilised. Column 3: Number of Capsules produced. Column 4: Average Number of Seeds per Capsule. Column 5: Average Number of Seeds per Flower fertilised.
The six legitimate unions : 75 : 56 : 96.29 : 71.89. The twelve illegitimate unions : 146 : 36 : 44.72 : 11.03.
Therefore the fertility of the legitimate unions to that of the illegitimate, as judged by the proportion of the fertilised flowers which yielded capsules, is as 100 to 33; and judged by the average number of seeds per capsule, as 100 to 46.
From this summary and the several foregoing tables we see that it is only pollen from the longest stamens which can fully fertilise the longest pistil; only that from the mid-length stamens, the mid-length pistil; and only that from the shortest stamens, the shortest pistil. And now we can comprehend the meaning of the almost exact correspondence in length between the pistil in each form and a set of six stamens in two of the other forms; for the stigma of each form is thus rubbed against that part of the insect's body which becomes charged with the proper pollen. It is also evident that the stigma of each form, fertilised in three different ways with pollen from the longest, mid-length, and shortest stamens, is acted on very differently, and conversely that the pollen from the twelve longest, twelve mid-length, and twelve shortest stamens acts very differently on each of the three stigmas; so that there are three sets of female and of male organs. Moreover, in most cases the six stamens of each set differ somewhat in their fertilising power from the six corresponding ones in one of the other forms. We may further draw the remarkable conclusion that the greater the inequality in length between the pistil and the set of stamens, the pollen of which is employed for its fertilisation, by so much is the sterility of the union increased. There are no exceptions to this rule. To understand what follows the reader should look to Tables 4.23, 4.24 and 4.25, and to the diagram Figure 4.10. In the long-styled form the short stamens obviously differ in length from the pistil to a greater degree than do the mid-length stamens; and the capsules produced by the use of pollen from the shortest stamens contain fewer seeds than those produced by the pollen from the mid-length stamens. The same result follows with the long-styled form, from the use of the pollen of shortest stamens of the mid-styled form and of the mid-length stamens of the short-styled form. The same rule also holds good with the mid-styled and short- styled forms, when illegitimately fertilised with pollen from the stamens more or less unequal in length to their pistils. Certainly the difference in sterility in these several cases is slight; but, as far as we are enabled to judge, it always increases with the increasing inequality of length between the pistil and the stamens which are used in each case.
The correspondence in length between the pistil in each form and a set of stamens in the other two forms, is probably the direct result of adaptation, as it is of high service to the species by leading to full and legitimate fertilisation. But the rule of the increased sterility of the illegitimate unions according to the greater inequality in length between the pistils and stamens employed for the union can be of no service. With some heterostyled dimorphic plants the difference of fertility between the two illegitimate unions appears at first sight to be related to the facility of self-fertilisation; so that when from the position of the parts the liability in one form to self- fertilisation is greater than in the other, a union of this kind has been checked by having been rendered the more sterile of the two. But this explanation does not apply to Lythrum; thus the stigma of the long-styled form is more liable to be illegitimately fertilised with pollen from its own mid- length stamens, or with pollen from the mid-length stamens of the short-styled form, than by its own shortest stamens or those of the mid-styled form; yet the two former unions, which it might have been expected would have been guarded against by increased sterility, are much less likely to be effected.