Therefore the
cross-fertilised capsules, compared with the self-fertilised, yielded
seeds in the ratio of about 100 to 15. These plants of Brazilian
parentage differed also in a marked manner from the English plants in
producing extremely few spontaneously self-fertilised capsules under a
net.
Crossed and self-fertilised seeds from the above plants, after
germinating on bare sand, were planted in pairs on the opposite sides of
five large pots. The seedlings thus raised were the grandchildren of the
plants which grew in Brazil; the parents having been grown in England.
As the grandparents in Brazil absolutely require cross-fertilisation in
order to yield any seeds, I expected that self-fertilisation would have
proved very injurious to these seedlings, and that the crossed ones
would have been greatly superior in height and vigour to those raised
from self-fertilised flowers. But the result showed that my anticipation
was erroneous; for as in the last experiment with plants of the English
stock, so in the present one, the self-fertilised plants exceeded the
crossed by a little in height. It will be sufficient to state that the
fourteen crossed plants averaged 44.64, and the fourteen self-fertilised
45.12 inches in height; or as 100 to 101.
THE EFFECTS OF A CROSS WITH A FRESH STOCK.
I now tried a different experiment. Eight flowers on the self-fertilised
plants of the last experiment (i.
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