But this high average was almost certainly false; and I mention
the case for the sake of showing the difficulty of arriving at a fair result;
for this average mainly depended on two capsules containing the extraordinary
numbers of 75 and 56 seeds; these seeds, however, though I felt bound to count
them, were so poor that, judging from trials made in other cases, I do not
suppose that one would have germinated; and therefore they ought not to have
been included. Lastly, 20 flowers were legitimately fertilised with pollen from
a legitimate plant, and this increased their fertility; for they produced 10
capsules. Yet this is but a very small proportion for a legitimate union.
There can, therefore, be no doubt that these five long-styled plants and the one
short-styled plant of the first illegitimate generation were extremely sterile.
Their sterility was shown, as in the case of hybrids, in another way, namely, by
their flowering profusely, and especially by the long endurance of the flowers.
For instance, I fertilised many flowers on these plants, and fifteen days
afterwards (namely on March 22nd) I fertilised numerous long-styled and short-
styled flowers on common cowslips growing close by. These latter flowers, on
April 8th, were withered, whilst most of the illegitimate flowers remained quite
fresh for several days subsequently; so that some of these illegitimate plants,
after being fertilised, remained in full bloom for above a month.
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