Mr. Duck : 20 : 0 : 9.
Baston : 30 : 18 : 15.
Chichester : 12 : 9 : 2.
Holwood : 42 : 12 : 0.
High Elms : 16 : 0 : 0.
Westerham : 1 : 5 : 0.
My own plants from purchased seeds : 13 : 7 : 0.
Total : 134 : 51 : 43.
In a state of nature the long and short-styled forms would no doubt occur in
nearly equal numbers, as I infer from the analogy of the other heterostyled
species of Primula, and from having raised the two forms of the present species
in exactly the same number from flowers which had been LEGITIMATELY crossed. The
preponderance in Table 5.31 of the long-styled form over the short-styled (in
the proportion of 134 to 51) results from gardeners generally collecting seed
from self-fertilised flowers; and the long-styled flowers produce spontaneously
much more seed (as shown in the first chapter) than the short-styled, owing to
the anthers of the long-styled form being placed low down in the corolla, so
that, when the flowers fall off, the anthers are dragged over the stigma; and we
now also know that long-styled plants, when self-fertilised, very generally
reproduce long-styled offspring. From the consideration of this table, it
occurred to me in the year 1862, that almost all the plants of the Chinese
primrose cultivated in England would sooner or later become long-styled or
equal-styled; and now, at the close of 1876, I have had five small collections
of plants examined, and almost all consisted of long-styled, with some more or
less well-characterised equal-styled plants, but with not one short-styled.
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