It appears that the setting of
the flowers, that is, the production of capsules whether good or bad, is not so
much influenced by legitimate and illegitimate fertilisation as is the number of
seeds which the capsules contain. For, as may be seen at the bottom of Table
1.12, 88.4 per cent of the illegitimately fertilised flowers yielded capsules;
but these contained only 61.8 per cent of seeds, in comparison, in each case,
with the legitimately fertilised flowers and capsules of the same species.
There is another point which deserves notice, namely, the relative degree of
infertility in the several species of the long-styled and short-styled flowers,
when both are illegitimately fertilised. The data may be found in the earlier
tables, and in those given by Mr. Scott in the Paper already referred to. If we
call the number of seeds per capsule produced by the illegitimately fertilised
long-styled flowers 100, the seeds from the illegitimately fertilised short-
styled flowers will be represented by the following numbers (Table 1.a.):--
TABLE 1.a.
Primula veris : 71.
Primula elatior : 44 (Probably too low).
Primula vulgaris : 36 (Perhaps too low).
Primula Sinensis : 71.
Primula auricula : 119.
Primula Sikkimensis : 57.
Primula cortusoides : 93.
Primula involucrata : 74.
Primula farinosa : 63.
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