E. Smith 1824 volume 1 page 307.); some of these
undoubtedly are hybrids, and several hybrids have originated in gardens; but
most of these cases require, as Gartner remarks, verification. (2/23. See
Gartner 'Bastarderzeugung' 1849 page 590.) Hence the following case is worth
recording, more especially as the two species in question, V. thapsus and
lychnitis, are perfectly fertile when insects are excluded, showing that the
stigma of each flower receives its own pollen. Moreover the flowers offer only
pollen to insects, and have not been rendered attractive to them by secreting
nectar.
I transplanted a young wild plant into my garden for experimental purposes, and
when it flowered it plainly differed from the two species just mentioned and
from a third which grows in this neighbourhood. I thought that it was a strange
variety of V. thapsus. It attained the height (by measurement) of 8 feet! It was
covered with a net, and ten flowers were fertilised with pollen from the same
plant; later in the season, when uncovered, the flowers were freely visited by
pollen-collecting bees; nevertheless, although many capsules were produced, not
one contained a single seed. During the following year this same plant was left
uncovered near plants of V. thapsus and lychnitis; but again it did not produce
a single seed. Four flowers, however, which were repeatedly fertilised with
pollen of V.
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