The number of seeds produced
is smaller and the ovules larger. The plants tend to flower first.
The short-styled plants have a short pistil, half the length of the tube of the
corolla, with a smooth depressed stigma standing beneath the anthers. The
stamens are long; the grains of pollen are spherical and larger. The tube of the
corolla is of uniform diameter except close to the upper end. The number of
seeds produced is larger.
I have examined a large number of flowers; and though the shape of the stigma
and the length of the pistil both vary, especially in the short-styled form, I
have never met with any transitional states between the two forms in plants
growing in a state of nature. There is never the slightest doubt under which
form a plant ought to be classed. The two kinds of flowers are never found on
the same individual plant. I marked many cowslips and primroses, and on the
following year all retained the same character, as did some in my garden which
flowered out of their proper season in the autumn. Mr. W. Wooler, of Darlington,
however, informs us that he has seen early blossoms on the Polyanthus, which
were not long-styled, but became so later in the season. (1/4. I have proved by
numerous experiments, hereafter to be given, that the Polyanthus is a variety of
Primula veris.) Possibly in this case the pistils may not have been fully
developed during the early spring.
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