All produced plenty of capsules. I counted the number of seeds in only three plants, namely Numbers 8, 9, and 10.
[PLANT 8.
This plant was allowed to be freely fertilised in 1864 by legitimate and illegitimate plants of the other two forms, and ten capsules yielded on an average 41.1 seeds, with a maximum of 73 and a minimum of 11. Hence this plant produced only 44 per cent of the full complement of seeds.
PLANT 9.
This long-styled plant was allowed in 1865 to be freely fertilised by illegitimate plants of the other two forms, most of which were moderately fertile. Fifteen capsules yielded on an average 57.1 seeds, with a maximum of 86 and a minimum of 23. Hence the plant yielded 61 per cent of the full complement of seeds.
PLANT 10.
This long-styled plant was freely fertilised at the same time and in the same manner as the last. Ten capsules yielded an average of 44.2 seeds, with a maximum of 69 and a minimum of 25; hence this plant yielded 47 per cent of the full complement of seeds.]
The nineteen long-styled plants of the third lot, of the same parentage as the last lot, were treated differently; for they flowered during 1867 by themselves so that they must have been illegitimately fertilised by one another. It has already been stated that a legitimate long-styled plant, growing by itself and visited by insects, yielded an average of 21.5 seeds per capsule, with a maximum of 35; but, to judge fairly of its fertility, it ought to have been observed during successive seasons. We may also infer from analogy that, if several legitimate long-styled plants were to fertilise one another, the average number of seeds would be increased; but how much increased I do not know; hence I have no perfectly fair standard of comparison by which to judge of the fertility of the three following plants of the present lot, the seeds of which I counted.
[PLANT 11.
This long-styled plant produced a large crop of capsules, and in this respect was one of the most fertile of the whole lot of nineteen plants. But the average from ten capsules was only 35.9 seeds, with a maximum of 60 and a minimum of 8.
PLANT 12.
This long-styled plant produced very few capsules; and ten yielded an average of only 15.4 seeds, with a maximum of 30 and a minimum of 4.
PLANT 13.
This plant offers an anomalous case; it flowered profusely, yet produced very few capsules; but these contained numerous seeds. Ten capsules yielded an average of 71.9 seeds, with a maximum of 95 and a minimum of 29. Considering that this plant was illegitimate and illegitimately fertilised by its brother long-styled seedlings, the average and the maximum are so remarkably high that I cannot at all understand the case. We should remember that the average for a legitimate plant legitimately fertilised is 93 seeds.]
CLASS 3. ILLEGITIMATE PLANTS RAISED FROM A SHORT-STYLED PARENT FERTILISED WITH POLLEN FROM OWN-FORM MID-LENGTH STAMENS.
I raised from this union nine plants, of which eight were short-styled and one long-styled; so that there seems to be a strong tendency in this form to reproduce, when self-fertilised, the parent-form; but the tendency is not so strong as with the long-styled. These nine plants never attained the full height of legitimate plants growing close to them. The anthers were contabescent in many of the flowers on several plants.
[PLANT 14.
This short-styled plant was allowed during 1865 to be freely and legitimately fertilised by illegitimate plants descended from self-fertilised mid-, long- and short-styled plants. Fifteen capsules yielded an average of 28.3 seeds, with a maximum of 51 and a minimum of 11; hence this plant produced only 33 per cent of the proper number of seeds. The seeds themselves were small and irregular in shape. Although so sterile on the female side, none of the anthers were contabescent.
PLANT 15.
This short-styled plant, treated like the last during the same year, yielded an average, from fifteen capsules, of 27 seeds, with a maximum of 49 and a minimum of 7.