very striking results. But the plan usually followed was to put into
competition and compare intercrossed plants, which were almost always
the offspring of more or less closely related plants, with the
self-fertilised plants of each succeeding generation;--all having been
grown under closely similar conditions. I have, however, learnt more by
this method of proceeding, which was begun by an oversight and then
necessarily followed, than if I had always crossed the self-fertilised
plants of each succeeding generation with pollen from a fresh stock.

I have said that the crossed plants of the successive generations were
almost always inter-related. When the flowers on an hermaphrodite plant
are crossed with pollen taken from a distinct plant, the seedlings thus
raised may be considered as hermaphrodite brothers or sisters; those
raised from the same capsule being as close as twins or animals of the
same litter. But in one sense the flowers on the same plant are distinct
individuals, and as several flowers on the mother-plant were crossed by
pollen taken from several flowers on the father-plant, such seedlings
would be in one sense half-brothers or sisters, but more closely related
than are the half-brothers and sisters of ordinary animals. The flowers
on the mother-plant were, however, commonly crossed by pollen taken from
two or more distinct plants; and in these cases the seedlings might be
called with more truth half-brothers or sisters. When two or three
mother-plants were crossed, as often happened, by pollen taken from two
or three father-plants (the seeds being all intermingled), some of the
seedlings of the first generation would be in no way related, whilst
many others would be whole or half-brothers and sisters. In the second
generation a large number of the seedlings would be what may be called
whole or half first-cousins, mingled with whole and half-brothers and
sisters, and with some plants not at all related. So it would be in the
succeeding generations, but there would also be many cousins of the