Column 3: Naturally Crossed Plants from Self-fertilised Plants.
Pot 1 : 12 1/8 : 9 6/8.
Pot 1 : 11 6/8 : 8 3/8.
Pot 2 : 13 2/8 : 9 6/8.
Pot 2 : 10 : 11 4/8.
Pot 3 : 14 4/8 : 11 1/8.
Pot 3 : 13 6/8 : 11 3/8.
Total : 75.38 : 61.88.
The average height of the six tallest plants derived from the crossed
plants is 12.56 inches; and that of the six tallest plants derived from
the self-fertilised plants is 10.31 inches; or as 100 to 82. We here see
a considerable difference in height between the two sets, though very
far from equalling that in the previous trials between the offspring
from crossed and self-fertilised flowers. This difference must be
attributed to the latter set of plants having inherited a weak
constitution from their parents, the offspring of self-fertilised
flowers; notwithstanding that the parents themselves had been freely
intercrossed with other plants by the aid of insects.
10. RANUNCULACEAE.--Adonis aestivalis.
The results of my experiments on this plant are hardly worth giving, as
I remark in my notes made at the time, "seedlings, from some unknown
cause, all miserably unhealthy." Nor did they ever become healthy; yet I
feel bound to give the present case, as it is opposed to the general
results at which I have arrived. Fifteen flowers were crossed and all
produced fruit, containing on an average 32.5 seeds; nineteen flowers
were fertilised with their own pollen, and they likewise all yielded
fruit, containing a rather larger average of 34.
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