It is remarkable that there is no close correspondence, either in the parent-plants or in the successive generations, between the relative number of seeds produced by the crossed and self-fertilised flowers, and the relative powers of growth of the seedlings raised from such seeds.  Thus, the crossed and self-fertilised flowers on the parent-plants of Ipomoea, Gesneria, Salvia, Limnanthes, Lobelia fulgens, and Nolana produced a nearly equal number of seeds, yet the plants raised from the crossed seeds exceeded considerably in height those raised from the self-fertilised seeds.  The crossed flowers of Linaria and Viscaria yielded far more seeds than the self-fertilised flowers; and although the plants raised from the former were taller than those from the latter, they were not so in any corresponding degree.  With Nicotiana the flowers fertilised with their own pollen were more productive than those crossed with pollen from a slightly different variety; yet the plants raised from the latter seeds were much taller, heavier, and more hardy than those raised from the self-fertilised seeds.  On the other hand, the crossed seedlings of Eschscholtzia were neither taller nor heavier than the self-fertilised, although the crossed flowers were far more productive than the self-fertilised.  But the best evidence of a want of correspondence between the number of seeds produced by crossed and self-fertilised flowers, and the vigour of the offspring raised from them, is afforded by the plants of the Brazilian and European stocks of Eschscholtzia, and likewise by certain individual plants of Reseda odorata; for it might have been expected that the seedlings from plants, the flowers of which were excessively self-sterile, would have profited in a greater degree by a cross, than the seedlings from plants which were moderately or fully self-fertile, and therefore apparently had no need to be crossed.  But no such result followed in either case:  for instance, the crossed and self-fertilised offspring from a highly self-fertile plant of Reseda odorata were in average height to each other as 100 to 82; whereas the similar offspring from an excessively self-sterile plant were as 100 to 92 in average height.

With respect to the innate fertility of the plants of crossed and self-fertilised parentage, given in the previous Table 9/D—­that is, the number of seeds produced by both lots when their flowers were fertilised in the same manner,—­nearly the same remarks are applicable, in reference to the absence of any close correspondence between their fertility and powers of growth, as in the case of the plants in the Tables 9/F and 9/G, just considered.  Thus the crossed and self-fertilised plants of Ipomoea, Papaver, Reseda odorata, and Limnanthes were almost equally fertile, yet the former exceeded considerably in height the self-fertilised plants.  On the other hand, the crossed and self-fertilised plants of Mimulus and Primula differed to an extreme degree in innate fertility, but by no means to a corresponding degree in height or vigour.