Another experiment was now tried for the sake of ascertaining how far the superiority of the crossed plants, or to speak more correctly, the inferiority of the self-fertilised plants, would be transmitted to their offspring.  The one crossed and one self-fertilised plant, which were first raised, had been turned out of their pot and planted in the open ground.  Both produced an abundance of very fine capsules, from which fact we may safely conclude that they had been cross-fertilised by insects.  Seeds from both, after germinating on sand, were planted in pairs on the opposite sides of three pots.  The naturally crossed seedlings derived from the crossed plants flowered in all three pots before the naturally crossed seedlings derived from the self-fertilised plants.  When both lots were in full flower, the two tallest plants on each side of each pot were measured, and the result is shown in Table 4/42.

Table 4/42.  Viola tricolor:  seedlings from crossed and self-fertilised plants, the parents of both sets having been left to be naturally fertilised.

Heights of plants measured in inches.

Column 1:  Number (Name) of Pot.

Column 2:  Naturally Crossed Plants from artificially crossed Plants.

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 34.5 seeds; or as 100 to 106.  Seedlings were raised from these seeds.  In one of the pots all the self-fertilised plants died whilst quite young; in the two others, the measurements were as follows: