PLANT 22.
This short-styled plant produced perfectly sound pollen, as viewed under the microscope. During 1866 it was freely and legitimately fertilised by other illegitimate plants belonging to the present and the following class, both of which include many highly fertile plants. Under these circumstances it yielded from eight capsules an average of 100.5 seeds, with a maximum of 123 and a minimum of 86; so that it produced 121 per cent of seeds in comparison with the normal standard. During 1864 it was allowed to be freely and legitimately fertilised by legitimate and illegitimate plants, and yielded an average, from eight capsules, of 104.2 seeds, with a maximum of 125 and a minimum of 90; consequently it exceeded the normal standard, producing 125 per cent of seeds. In this case, as in some previous cases, pollen from legitimate plants added in a small degree to the fertility of the plant; and the fertility would, perhaps, have been still greater had not the summer of 1864 been very hot and certainly unfavourable to some of the plants of Lythrum.
PLANT 23.
This short-styled plant produced perfectly sound pollen. During 1866 it was freely and legitimately fertilised by the other illegitimate plants specified under the last experiment, and eight capsules yielded an average of 113.5 seeds, with a maximum of 123 and a minimum of 93. Hence this plant exceeded the normal standard, producing no less than 136 per cent of seeds.
PLANT 24.
This long-styled plant produced pollen which seemed under the microscope sound; but some of the grains did not swell when placed in water. During 1864 it was legitimately fertilised by legitimate and illegitimate plants in the same manner as Plant 22, but yielded an average, from ten capsules, of only 55 seeds, with a maximum of 88 and a minimum of 24, thus attaining 59 per cent of the normal fertility. This low degree of fertility, I presume, was owing to the unfavourable season; for during 1866, when legitimately fertilised by illegitimate plants in the manner described under Number 22, it yielded an average, from eight capsules, of 82 seeds, with a maximum of 120 and a minimum of 67, thus producing 88 per cent of the normal number of seeds.
PLANT 25.
The pollen of this long-styled plant contained a moderate number of poor and shrivelled grains; and this is a surprising circumstance, as it yielded an extraordinary number of seeds. During 1866 it was freely and legitimately fertilised by illegitimate plants, as described under Number 22, and yielded an average, from eight capsules, of 122.5 seeds, with a maximum of 149 and a minimum of 84. Hence this plant exceeded the normal standard, producing no less than 131 per cent of seeds.]
CLASS 6. ILLEGITIMATE PLANTS RAISED FROM MID-STYLED PARENTS FERTILISED WITH POLLEN FROM THE SHORTEST STAMENS OF THE LONG-STYLED FORM.
I raised from this union twenty-five plants, which proved to be seventeen long- styled and eight mid-styled, but not one short-styled. None of these plants were in the least dwarfed. I examined, during the highly favourable season of 1866, the pollen of four plants: in one mid-styled plant, some of the anthers of the longest stamens were contabescent, but the pollen-grains in the other anthers were mostly sound, as they were in all the anthers of the shortest stamens; in two other mid-styled and in one long-styled plant many of the pollen-grains were small and shrivelled; and in the latter plant as many as a fifth or sixth part appeared to be in this state. I counted the seeds in five plants (Numbers 26 to 30), of which two were moderately sterile and three fully fertile.