It should be especially observed that the average difference between the crossed and self-fertilised plants is not due to a few of the former having grown to an extraordinary height, or to a few of the self-fertilised being extremely short, but to all the crossed plants having surpassed their self-fertilised opponents, with the few following exceptions. The first occurred in the sixth generation, in which the plant named “Hero” appeared; two in the eighth generation, but the self-fertilised plants in this generation were in an anomalous condition, as they grew at first at an unusual rate and conquered for a time the opposed crossed plants; and two exceptions in the ninth generation, though one of these plants only equalled its crossed opponent. Therefore, of the seventy-three crossed plants, sixty-eight grew to a greater height than the self-fertilised plants, to which they were opposed.
In the right-hand column of figures, the difference in height between the crossed and self-fertilised plants in the successive generations is seen to fluctuate much, as might indeed have been expected from the small number of plants measured in each generation being insufficient to give a fair average. It should be remembered that the absolute height of the plants goes for nothing, as each pair was measured as soon as one of them had twined up to the summit of its rod. The great difference in the tenth generation, namely, 100 to 54, no doubt was partly accidental, though, when these plants were weighed, the difference was even greater, namely, 100 to 44. The smallest amount of difference occurred in the fourth and the eighth generations, and this was apparently due to both the crossed and self-fertilised plants having become unhealthy, which prevented the former attaining their usual degree of superiority. This was an unfortunate circumstance, but my experiments were not thus vitiated, as both lots of plants were exposed to the same conditions, whether favourable or unfavourable.
There is reason to believe that the flowers of this Ipomoea, when growing out of doors, are habitually crossed by insects, so that the first seedlings which I raised from purchased seeds were probably the offspring of a cross. I infer that this is the case, firstly from humble-bees often visiting the flowers, and from the quantity of pollen left by them on the stigmas of such flowers; and, secondly, from the plants raised from the same lot of seed varying greatly in the colour of their flowers, for as we shall hereafter see, this indicates much intercrossing. (2/3. Verlot says ‘Sur la Production des Variétés’ 1865 page 66, that certain varieties of a closely allied plant, the Convolvulus tricolor, cannot be kept pure unless grown at a distance from all other varieties.) It is, therefore, remarkable that the plants raised by me from flowers which were, in all probability, self-fertilised for the first time after many generations of crossing, should have been so markedly inferior in height to the intercrossed plants as they were, namely, as 76 to 100. As the plants which were self-fertilised in each succeeding generation necessarily became much more closely interbred in the later than in the earlier generations, it might have been expected that the difference in height between them and the crossed plants would have gone on increasing; but, so far is this from being the case, that the difference between the two sets of plants in the seventh, eighth, and ninth generations taken together is less than in the first and second generations together. When, however, we remember that the self-fertilised and crossed plants are all descended from the same mother-plant, that many of the crossed plants in each generation were related, often closely related, and that all were exposed to the same conditions, which, as we shall hereafter find, is a very important circumstance, it is not at all surprising that the difference between them should have somewhat decreased in the later generations. It is, on the contrary, an astonishing fact, that the crossed plants should have been victorious, even to a slight degree, over the self-fertilised plants of the later generations.
The much greater constitutional vigour of the crossed than of the self-fertilised plants, was proved on five occasions in various ways; namely, by exposing them, while young, to a low temperature or to a sudden change of temperature, or by growing them, under very unfavourable conditions, in competition with full-grown plants of other kinds.
With respect to the productiveness of the crossed and self-fertilised plants of the successive generations, my observations unfortunately were not made on any uniform plan, partly from the want of time, and partly from not having at first intended to observe more than a single generation. A summary of the results is here given in a tabulated form, the fertility of the crossed plants being taken as 100.
TABLE 2/18. Ratio of productiveness of crossed and self-fertilised plants. Ipomoea purpurea.
FIRST GENERATION OF CROSSED AND SELF-FERTILISED PLANTS GROWING IN COMPETITION WITH ONE ANOTHER.
Sixty-five capsules produced from flowers on five crossed plants fertilised by pollen from a distinct plant, and fifty-five capsules produced from flowers on five self-fertilised plants fertilised by their own pollen, contained seeds in the proportion of : 100 to 93.
Fifty-six spontaneously self-fertilised capsules on the above five crossed plants, and twenty-five spontaneously self-fertilised capsules on the above five self-fertilised plants, yielded seeds in the proportion of : 100 to 99.
Combining the total number of capsules produced by these plants, and the average number of seeds in each, the above crossed and self-fertilised plants yielded seeds in the proportion of : 100 to 64.