This short-styled plant was fertilised in the same manner and at the same time
with the last; and ten capsules yielded an average of 113.9, with a maximum of
137 and a minimum of 90. Hence this plant produced no less than 137 per cent of
seeds in comparison with the normal standard.]
CONCLUDING REMARKS ON THE ILLEGITIMATE OFFSPRING OF THE THREE FORMS OF Lythrum
salicaria.
From the three forms occurring in approximately equal numbers in a state of
nature, and from the results of sowing seed naturally produced, there is reason
to believe that each form, when legitimately fertilised, reproduces all three
forms in about equal numbers. Now, we have seen (and the fact is a very singular
one) that the fifty-six plants produced from the long-styled form,
illegitimately fertilised with pollen from the same form (Class 1 and 2), were
all long-styled. The short-styled form, when self-fertilised (Class 3), produced
eight short-styled and one long-styled plant; and the mid-styled form, similarly
treated (Class 4), produced three mid-styled and one long-styled offspring; so
that these two forms, when illegitimately fertilised with pollen from the same
form, evince a strong, but not exclusive, tendency to reproduce the parent-form.
When the short-styled form was illegitimately fertilised by the long-styled form
(Class 5), and again when the mid-styled was illegitimately fertilised by the
long-styled (Class 6), in each case the two parent-forms alone were reproduced.
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