Two of these plants, fertilised with pollen from a
short-styled cowslip (and this in fact is a legitimate union), gave a lower
average than when self-fertilised. On the other hand, another plant, when
similarly fertilised by a cowslip, yielded the unusually high average of 53
seeds, with a maximum of 67. Lastly, as we have just seen, one of these plants
was in an almost exactly intermediate condition in its female organs between the
long- and short-styled forms, and consequently, when self-fertilised, yielded a
low average of seed. If we add together all the experiments which I made on the
equal-styled plants, 41 spontaneously self-fertilised capsules (insects having
been excluded) gave an average of 34 seeds, which is exactly the same number as
the parent-plant yielded in Edinburgh. Thirty-four flowers, fertilised with
pollen from the short-styled cowslip (and this is an analogous union), produced
17 capsules, containing an average of 33.8 seeds. It is a rather singular
circumstance, for which I cannot account, that 20 flowers, artificially
fertilised on one occasion with pollen from the same plants yielded only ten
capsules, containing the low average of 26.7 seeds.
As bearing on inheritance, it may be added that 72 seedlings were raised from
one of the red-flowered, strictly equal-styled, self-fertilised plants descended
from the similarly characterised Edinburgh plant.
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