In the spring of the following year (1870), when the seedlings
had grown to a considerable size, they were measured to the tips of
their leaves; and the twenty-three crossed plants averaged 14.04 inches
in height, whilst the twenty-three self-fertilised seedlings were 13.54
inches; or as 100 to 96.
In the summer of the same year several of these plants flowered, the
crossed and self-fertilised plants flowering almost simultaneously, and
all the flower-stems were measured. Those produced by eleven of the
crossed plants averaged 30.71 inches, and those by nine of the
self-fertilised plants 29.43 inches in height; or as 100 to 96.
The plants in these nine pots, after they had flowered, were repotted
without being disturbed in much larger pots; and in the following year,
1871, all flowered freely; but they had grown into such an entangled
mass, that the separate plants on each side could no longer be
distinguished. Accordingly three or four of the tallest flower-stems on
each side of each pot were measured; and the measurements in Table 5/71
are, I think, more trustworthy than the previous ones, from being more
numerous, and from the plants being well established and growing
vigorously.
The average height of the thirty-four tallest flower-stems on the
twenty-three crossed plants is 29.82 inches, and that of the same number
of flower-stems on the same number of self-fertilised plants is 27.
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