seeds than do the flowers of the long-styled when fertilised with pollen from a
distinct plant of the same form. So it is with the short-styled flowers, if
treated in an analogous manner. Therefore I have called the former method of
fertilisation a legitimate union, and the latter, as it fails to yield the full
complement of capsules and seeds, an illegitimate union. These two kinds of
union are graphically represented in Figure 1.2.

(FIGURE 1.2. Primula veris.
Graphic representation of two kinds of union between:
Left: Long-styled form.
Right: Short-styled form.)

If we consider the results of the two legitimate unions taken together and the
two illegitimate ones, as shown in Table 1.7, we see that the former compared
with the latter yielded capsules, whether containing many seeds or only a few,
in the proportion of 77 to 45, or as 100 to 58. But the inferiority of the
illegitimate unions is here perhaps too great, for on a subsequent occasion 100
long-styled and short-styled flowers were illegitimately fertilised, and they
together yielded 53 capsules: therefore the rate of 77 to 53, or as 100 to 69,
is a fairer one than that of 100 to 58. Returning to Table 1.7, if we consider
only the good capsules, those from the two legitimate unions were to those from
the two illegitimate in number as 71 to 31, or as 100 to 44. Again, if we take
an equal number of capsules, whether good or bad, from the legitimately and
illegitimately fertilised flowers, we find that the former contained seeds by
weight compared with the latter as 50 to 24, or as 100 to 48; but if all the
poor capsules are rejected, of which many were produced by the illegitimately
fertilised flowers, the proportion is 54 to 35, or as 100 to 65. In this and all
other cases, the relative fertility of the two kinds of union can, I think, be
judged of more truly by the average number of seeds per capsule than by the
proportion of flowers which yield capsules. The two methods might have been