These
seeds were sown in my garden and eleven seedlings thus raised, all of which
proved long-styled, in accordance with the usual rule in such cases. Two years
afterwards the plants were left uncovered, no other plant of the same genus
growing in my garden, and the flowers were visited by many bees. They set an
abundance of seeds: for instance, I gathered from a single plant rather less
than half of the seeds which it had produced, and they numbered 47. Therefore
this illegitimately fertilised plant must have produced about 100 seeds; that
is, thrice as many as one of the wild long-styled plants collected on the
Siebengebirge by Hildebrand, and which, no doubt, had been legitimately
fertilised. In the following year one of my plants was covered by a net, and
even under these unfavourable conditions it produced spontaneously a few seeds.
It should be observed that as the flowers stand either almost horizontally or
hang considerably downwards, pollen from the short stamens would be likely to
fall on the stigma. We thus see that the English long-styled plants when
illegitimately fertilised were highly fertile, whilst the German plants
similarly treated by Hildebrand were completely sterile. How to account for this
wide discordance in our results I know not. Hildebrand cultivated his plants in
pots and kept them for a time in the house, whilst mine were grown out of doors;
and he thinks that this difference of treatment may have caused the difference
in our results.
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