CROSSED AND SELF-FERTILISED PLANTS OF THE FOURTH GENERATION.
Seeds of the two kinds, produced in the usual way from the two sets of plants of the third generation, were sown on opposite sides of two pots (1 and 2); but the seedlings were not thinned enough and did not grow well. Many of the self-fertilised plants, especially in one of the pots, consisted of the new and tall variety above referred to, which bore large and almost white flowers marked with crimson blotches. I will call it the WHITE VARIETY. I believe that it first appeared amongst both the crossed and self-fertilised plants of the last generation; but neither my gardener nor myself could remember any such variety in the seedlings raised from the purchased seed. It must therefore have arisen either through ordinary variation, or, judging from its appearance amongst both the crossed and self-fertilised plants, more probably through reversion to a formerly existing variety.
In Pot 1 the tallest crossed plant was 8 1/2 inches, and the tallest self-fertilised 5 inches in height. In Pot 2, the tallest crossed plant was 6 1/2 inches, and the tallest self-fertilised plant, which consisted of the white variety, 7 inches in height; and this was the first instance in my experiments on Mimulus in which the tallest self-fertilised plant exceeded the tallest crossed. Nevertheless, the two tallest crossed plants taken together were to the two tallest self-fertilised plants in height as 100 to 80. As yet the crossed plants were superior to the self-fertilised in fertility; for twelve flowers on the crossed plants were crossed and yielded ten capsules, the seeds of which weighed 1.71 grain. Twenty flowers on the self-fertilised plants were self-fertilised, and produced fifteen capsules, all appearing poor; and the seeds from ten of them weighed only .68 grain, so that from an equal number of capsules the crossed seeds were to the self-fertilised in weight as 100 to 40.