TABLE 1.2.
Column 1: Plant. Column 2: Number of Plants. Column 3: Weight of Seed in grains. ... Column 4: Number of Umbels. Column 5: Weight of Seed. ... Column 6: Number of Capsules. Column 7: Weight of Seed in grains.
Short-styled cowslips : 10 : 92 :: 100 : 251 :: 100 : 41. Long-styled cowslips : 10 : 70 :: 100 : 178 :: 100 : 34.
So that, by all these standards of comparison, the short-styled form is the more fertile; if we take the number of umbels (which is the fairest standard, for large and small plants are thus equalised), the short-styled plants produce more seed than the long-styled, in the proportion of nearly four to three.
In 1861 the trial was made in a fuller and fairer manner. A number of wild plants had been transplanted during the previous autumn into a large bed in my garden, and all were treated alike; the result was:—