From the first it seemed to be rather more fertile, when
self-fertilised, than the old varieties, and in the succeeding
self-fertilised generations became more and more self-fertile. In the
sixth generation the self-fertilised plants of this variety compared
with the crossed plants produced capsules in the proportion of 147 to
100, both lots being allowed to fertilise themselves spontaneously. In
the seventh generation twenty flowers on one of these plants
artificially self-fertilised yielded no less than nineteen very fine
capsules!
This variety transmitted its characters so faithfully to all the
succeeding self-fertilised generations, up to the last or ninth, that
all the many plants which were raised presented a complete uniformity of
character; thus offering a remarkable contrast with the seedlings raised
from the purchased seeds. Yet this variety retained to the last a latent
tendency to produce yellow flowers; for when a plant of the eighth
self-fertilised generation was crossed with pollen from a
yellow-flowered plant of the Chelsea stock, every single seedling bore
yellow flowers. A similar variety, at least in the colour of its
flowers, also appeared amongst the crossed plants of the third
generation. No attention was at first paid to it, and I know not how far
it was at first used either for crossing or self-fertilisation. In the
fifth generation most of the self-fertilised plants, and in the sixth
and all the succeeding generations every single plant consisted of this
variety; and this no doubt was partly due to its great and increasing
self-fertility.
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