Column 1: Number (Name) of Pot.
Column 2: Naturally Crossed Plants from artificially crossed Plants.
Column 3: Naturally Crossed Plants from Self-fertilised Plants.
Pot 1 : 12 1/8 : 9 6/8. Pot 1 : 11 6/8 : 8 3/8.
Pot 2 : 13 2/8 : 9 6/8. Pot 2 : 10 : 11 4/8.
Pot 3 : 14 4/8 : 11 1/8. Pot 3 : 13 6/8 : 11 3/8.
Total : 75.38 : 61.88.
The average height of the six tallest plants derived from the crossed plants is 12.56 inches; and that of the six tallest plants derived from the self-fertilised plants is 10.31 inches; or as 100 to 82. We here see a considerable difference in height between the two sets, though very far from equalling that in the previous trials between the offspring from crossed and self-fertilised flowers. This difference must be attributed to the latter set of plants having inherited a weak constitution from their parents, the offspring of self-fertilised flowers; notwithstanding that the parents themselves had been freely intercrossed with other plants by the aid of insects.
10. RANUNCULACEAE.—Adonis aestivalis.
The results of my experiments on this plant are hardly worth giving, as I remark in my notes made at the time, “seedlings, from some unknown cause, all miserably unhealthy.” Nor did they ever become healthy; yet I feel bound to give the present case, as it is opposed to the general results at which I have arrived. Fifteen flowers were crossed and all produced fruit, containing on an average 32.5 seeds; nineteen flowers were fertilised with their own pollen, and they likewise all yielded fruit, containing a rather larger average of 34.5 seeds; or as 100 to 106. Seedlings were raised from these seeds. In one of the pots all the self-fertilised plants died whilst quite young; in the two others, the measurements were as follows: