THE EFFECTS OF A CROSS WITH A FRESH STOCK.
I procured some seed of N. tabacum from Kew and raised some plants, which formed a slightly different sub-variety from my former plants; as the flowers were a shade pinker, the leaves a little more pointed, and the plants not quite so tall. Therefore the advantage in height which the seedlings gained by this cross cannot be attributed to direct inheritance. Two of the plants of the third self-fertilised generation, growing in Pots 2 and 5 in Table 6/87, which exceeded in height their crossed opponents (as did their parents in a still higher degree) were fertilised with pollen from the Kew plants, that is, by a fresh stock. The seedlings thus raised may be called the Kew-crossed. Some other flowers on the same two plants were fertilised with their own pollen, and the seedlings thus raised from the fourth self-fertilised generation. The crossed capsules produced by the plant in Pot 2, Table 6/87, were plainly less fine than the self-fertilised capsules on the same plant. In Pot 5 the one finest capsule was also a self-fertilised one; but the seeds produced by the two crossed capsules together exceeded in number those produced by the two self-fertilised capsules on the same plant. Therefore as far as the flowers on the parent-plants are concerned, a cross with pollen from a fresh stock did little or no good; and I did not expect that the offspring would have received any benefit, but in this I was completely mistaken.
The crossed and self-fertilised seeds from the two plants were placed on bare sand, and very many of the crossed seeds of both sets germinated before the self-fertilised seeds, and protruded their radicles at a quicker rate. Hence many of the crossed seeds had to be rejected, before pairs in an equal state of germination were obtained for planting on the opposite sides of sixteen large pots. The two series of seedlings raised from the parent-plants in the two Pots 2 and 5 were kept separate, and when fully grown were measured to the tips of their highest leaves, as shown in Table 6/88. But as there was no uniform difference in height between the crossed and self-fertilised seedlings raised from the two plants, their heights have been added together in calculating the averages. I should state that by the accidental fall of a large bush in the greenhouse, several plants in both the series were much injured. These were at once measured together with their opponents and afterwards thrown away. The others were left to grow to their full height, and were measured when in flower. This accident accounts for the small height of some of the pairs; but as all the pairs, whether only partly or fully grown, were measured at the same time, the measurements are fair.
The average height of the twenty-six crossed plants in the sixteen pots of the two series is 63.29, and that of the twenty-six self-fertilised plants is 41.67 inches; or as 100 to 66. The superiority of the crossed plants was shown in another way, for in every one of the sixteen pots a crossed plant flowered before a self-fertilised one, with the exception of Pot 6 of the second series, in which the plants on the two sides flowered simultaneously.
TABLE 6/88. Nicotiana tabacum. Plants raised from two plants of the third self-fertilised generation in Pots 2 and 5, in Table 6/87.
Heights of plants measured in inches.
Column 1: Number (Name) of Pot.
Column 2: Kew-crossed Plants, pot 2, Table 6/87.
Column 3: Plants of the fourth Self-fertilised generation, pot 2, Table 6/87.
Column 4: Kew-crossed Plants, pot 5, Table 6/87.