The pollen-grains,
however, of the elongated stamens resembled in their small size those of the
shorter stamens proper to the long-styled form. Hence these plants have become
equal-styled by the increased length of the stamens, instead of, as with P.
Sinensis, by the diminished length of the pistil. Mr. J. Scott observed five
other plants in the same state, and he shows that one of them, when self-
fertilised, yielded more seed than an ordinary long- or short-styled form would
have done when similarly fertilised, but that it was far inferior in fertility
to either form when legitimately crossed. (5/8. 'Journal of the Proceedings of
the Linnean Society' 8 1864 page 91.) Hence it appears that the male and female
organs of this equal-styled variety have been modified in some special manner,
not only in structure but in functional powers. This, moreover, is shown by the
singular fact that both the long-styled and short-styled plants, fertilised with
pollen from the equal-styled variety, yield a lower average of seed than when
these two forms are fertilised with their own pollen.
The second point which deserves notice is that florists always throw away the
long-styled plants, and save seed exclusively from the short-styled form.
Nevertheless, as Mr. Scott was informed by a man who raises this species
extensively in Scotland, about one-fourth of the seedlings appear long-styled;
so that the short-styled form of the Auricula, when fertilised by its own
pollen, does not reproduce the same form in so large a proportion as in the case
of P.
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