Pot 3 : 46 : 45 1/8. Pot 3 : 67 2/8 : 45. Pot 3 : 54 3/8 : 23 2/8.
Pot 4 : 51 6/8 : 34. Pot 4 : 51 7/8 : 0.
Pot 5 : 49 4/8 : 22 3/8. Pot 5 : 46 3/8 : 24 2/8. Pot 5 : 40 : 24 6/8. Pot 5 : 53 : 30. Crowded plants.
Total : 701.88 : 453.50.
The fifteen crossed plants average 46.79, and the fourteen (one having died) self-fertilised plants 32.39 inches in height; or as 100 to 69. So that the crossed plants in this generation had recovered their wonted superiority over the self-fertilised plants; though the parents of the latter in Pot 1, Table 6/79, were a little taller than their crossed opponents.
CROSSED AND SELF-FERTILISED PLANTS OF THE FOURTH GENERATION (RAISED FROM THE PLANTS IN POT 4, TABLE 6/79).
Two similar lots of seeds, obtained from the plants in Pot 4 in Table 6/79, in which the single crossed plant was at first shorter, but ultimately much taller than its self-fertilised opponent, were treated in every way like their brethren of the same generation in the last experiment. We have in Table 6/81 the measurements of the present plants. Although the crossed plants greatly exceeded in height the self-fertilised; yet in three out of the five pots a self-fertilised plant flowered before any one of the crossed; in a fourth pot simultaneously; and in a fifth (namely Pot 2) a crossed plant flowered first.
TABLE 6/81. Petunia violacea (fourth generation; raised from plants of the third generation in Pot 4, Table 6/79).
Heights of plants measured in inches.
Column 1: Number (Name) of Pot.
Column 2: Crossed Plants.
Column 3: Self-fertilised Plants.
Pot 1 : 46 : 30 2/8. Pot 1 : 46 : 28.
Pot 2 : 50 6/8 : 25. Pot 2 : 40 2/8 : 31 3/8. Pot 2 : 37 3/8 : 22 4/8.
Pot 3 : 54 2/8 : 22 5/8. Pot 3 : 61 1/8 : 26 6/8. Pot 3 : 45 : 32.
Pot 4 : 30 : 24 4/8. Pot 4 : 29 1/8 : 26.
Pot 5 : 37 4/8 : 40 2/8. Pot 5 : 63 : 18 5/8. Pot 5 : 41 2/8 : 17 4/8. Crowded plants.
Total : 581.63 : 349.36.
The thirteen crossed plants here average 44.74, and the thirteen self-fertilised plants 26.87 inches in height; or as 100 to 60. The crossed parents of these were much taller, relatively to the self-fertilised parents, than in the last case; and apparently they transmitted some of this superiority to their crossed offspring. It is unfortunate that I did not turn these plants out of doors, so as to observe their relative fertility, for I compared the pollen from some of the crossed and self-fertilised plants in Pot 1, Table 6/81, and there was a marked difference in its state; that of the crossed plants contained hardly any bad and empty grains, whilst such abounded in the pollen of the self-fertilised plants.
THE EFFECTS OF A CROSS WITH A FRESH STOCK.
I procured from a garden in Westerham, whence my plants originally came, a fresh plant differing in no respect from mine except in the colour of the flowers, which was a fine purple. But this plant must have been exposed during at least four generations to very different conditions from those to which my plants had been subjected, as these had been grown in pots in the greenhouse. Eight flowers on the self-fertilised plants in Table 6/81, of the last or fourth self-fertilised generation, were fertilised with pollen from this fresh stock; all eight produced capsules containing together by weight 5.01 grains of seeds. The plants raised from these seeds may be called the Westerham-crossed.
Eight flowers on the crossed plants of the last or fourth generation in Table 6/81 were again crossed with pollen from one of the other crossed plants, and produced five capsules, containing by weight 2.07 grains of seeds. The plants raised from these seeds may be called the INTERCROSSED; and these form the fifth intercrossed generation.
Eight flowers on the self-fertilised plants of the same generation in Table 6/81 were again self-fertilised, and produced seven capsules, containing by weight 2.1 grains of seeds.