The forty-five capsules (the nine empty ones included) from the self-fertilised plants contained 1746.7 seeds.
The reader should remember that these capsules are the product of cross-fertilisation, effected by the bees; and that the difference in the number of the contained seeds must depend on the constitution of the plants;--that is, on whether they were derived from a cross with a distinct stock, or from a cross between plants of the same stock, or from self-fertilisation. From the above facts we obtain the following ratios:--
Number of seeds contained in an equal number of naturally fertilised capsules produced:--
By the English-crossed and self-fertilised plants, as 100 to 63.
By the English-crossed and intercrossed plants, as 100 to 81.
By the intercrossed and self-fertilised plants, as 100 to 78.
But to have ascertained the productiveness of the three lots of plants, it would have been necessary to know how many capsules were produced by the same number of plants. The three long rows, however, were not of quite equal lengths, and the plants were much crowded, so that it would have been extremely difficult to have ascertained how many capsules were produced by them, even if I had been willing to undertake so laborious a task as to collect and count all the capsules. But this was feasible with the plants grown in pots in the greenhouse; and although these were much less fertile than those growing out of doors, their relative fertility appeared, after carefully observing them, to be the same. The nineteen plants of the English-crossed stock in the pots produced altogether 240 capsules; the intercrossed plants (calculated as nineteen) produced 137.22 capsules; and the nineteen self-fertilised plants, 152 capsules. Now, knowing the number of seeds contained in forty-five capsules of each lot, it is easy to calculate the relative numbers of seeds produced by an equal number of the plants of the three lots.
Number of seeds produced by an equal number of naturally-fertilised plants:--
Plants of English-crossed and self-fertilised parentage, as 100 to 40 seeds.
Plants of English-crossed and intercrossed parentage, as 100 to 45 seeds.
Plants of intercrossed and self-fertilised parentage, as 100 to 89 seeds.
The superiority in productiveness of the intercrossed plants (that is, the product of a cross between the grandchildren of the plants which grew in Brazil) over the self-fertilised, small as it is, is wholly due to the larger average number of seeds contained in the capsules; for the intercrossed plants produced fewer capsules in the greenhouse than did the self-fertilised plants. The great superiority in productiveness of the English-crossed over the self-fertilised plants is shown by the larger number of capsules produced, the larger average number of contained seeds, and the smaller number of empty capsules. As the English-crossed and intercrossed plants were the offspring of crosses in every previous generation (as must have been the case from the flowers being sterile with their own pollen), we may conclude that the great superiority in productiveness of the English-crossed over the intercrossed plants is due to the two parents of the former having been long subjected to different conditions.
The English-crossed plants, though so superior in productiveness, were, as we have seen, decidedly inferior in height and weight to the self-fertilised, and only equal to, or hardly superior to, the intercrossed plants. Therefore, the whole advantage of a cross with a distinct stock is here confined to productiveness, and I have met with no similar case.
8. RESEDACEAE.--Reseda lutea.
Seeds collected from wild plants growing in this neighbourhood were sown in the kitchen-garden; and several of the seedlings thus raised were covered with a net. Of these, some were found (as will hereafter be more fully described) to be absolutely sterile when left to fertilise themselves spontaneously, although plenty of pollen fell on their stigmas; and they were equally sterile when artificially and repeatedly fertilised with their own pollen; whilst other plants produced a few spontaneously self-fertilised capsules.