Thus, of the 43 seedlings from the six legitimate unions, 35 belonged to the same two forms as their parents, and only 8 to the third form. Fritz Muller also raised in Brazil seedlings from long-styled plants of O. Regnelli legitimately fertilised with pollen from the longest stamens of the mid-styled form, and all these belonged to the two parent-forms. (5/5. 'Jenaische Zeitschrift' etc. Band 6 1871 page 75.) Lastly, seedlings were raised by me from long-styled plants of O. speciosa legitimately fertilised by the short-styled form, and from the latter reciprocally fertilised by the long-styled; and these consisted of 33 long-styled and 26 short-styled plants, with not one mid-styled form. There can, therefore, be no doubt that the legitimate offspring from any two forms of Oxalis tend to belong to the same two forms as their parents; but that a few seedlings belonging to the third form occasionally make their appearance; and this latter fact, as Hildebrand remarks, may be attributed to atavism, as some of their progenitors will almost certainly have belonged to the third form.
When, however, any one form of Oxalis is fertilised illegitimately with pollen from the same form, the seedlings appear to belong invariably to this form. Thus Hildebrand states that long-styled plants of O. rosea growing by themselves have been propagated in Germany year after year by seed, and have always produced long-styled plants. (5/6. 'Ueber den Trimorphismus in der Gattung Oxalis: Monatsberichte der Akad. der Wissen. zu Berlin' 21 June 1866 page 373 and 'Botanische Zeitung' 1871 page 435.) Again, 17 seedlings were raised from mid- styled plants of O. hedysaroides growing by themselves, and these were all mid- styled. So that the forms of Oxalis, when illegitimately fertilised with their own pollen, behave like the long-styled form of Lythrum salicaria, which when thus fertilised always produced with me long-styled offspring.]
PRIMULA.
Primula Sinensis.
I raised during February 1862, from some long-styled plants illegitimately fertilised with pollen from the same form, twenty-seven seedlings. These were all long-styled. They proved fully fertile or even fertile in excess; for ten flowers, fertilised with pollen from other plants of the same lot, yielded nine capsules, containing on an average 39.75 seeds, with a maximum in one capsule of 66 seeds. Four other flowers legitimately crossed with pollen from a legitimate plant, and four flowers on the latter crossed with pollen from the illegitimate seedlings, yielded seven capsules with an average of 53 seeds, with a maximum of 72. I must here state that I have found some difficulty in estimating the normal standard of fertility for the several unions of this species, as the results differ much during successive years, and the seeds vary so greatly in size that it is hard to 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 exception proved long-styled. These grandchildren grew vigorously, and soon exceeded in height two other lots of illegitimate 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.