So did all the plants, without any
exception, in the three succeeding generations of self-fertilised
plants; and very many were raised on account of other experiments in
progress not here recorded. My attention was first called to this fact
by my gardener remarking that there was no occasion to label the
self-fertilised plants, as they could always be known by their colour.
The flowers were as uniform in tint as those of a wild species growing
in a state of nature; whether the same tint occurred, as is probable, in
the earlier generations, neither my gardener nor self could recollect.
The flowers on the plants which were first raised from purchased seed,
as well as during the first few generations, varied much in the depth of
the purple tint; many were more or less pink, and occasionally a white
variety appeared. The crossed plants continued to the tenth generation
to vary in the same manner as before, but to a much less degree, owing,
probably, to their having become more or less closely inter-related. We
must therefore attribute the extraordinary uniformity of colour in the
flowers on the plants of the seventh and succeeding self-fertilised
generations, to inheritance not having been interfered with by crosses
during several preceding generations, in combination with the conditions
of life having been very uniform.
A plant appeared in the sixth self-fertilised generation, named the
Hero, which exceeded by a little in height its crossed antagonist, and
which transmitted its powers of growth and increased self-fertility to
its children and grandchildren.
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