2/16 were fertilised with pollen from the same flower; and the seedlings
raised from them (great-grandchildren of Hero) formed the ninth
self-fertilised generation. Several other flowers were crossed with
pollen from another grandchild, so that they may be considered as the
offspring of brothers and sisters, and the seedlings thus raised may be
called the INTERCROSSED great-grandchildren. And lastly, other flowers
were fertilised with pollen from a distinct stock, and the seedlings
thus raised may be called the COLCHESTER-CROSSED great-grandchildren. In
my anxiety to see what the result would be, I unfortunately planted the
three lots of seeds (after they had germinated on sand) in the hothouse
in the middle of winter, and in consequence of this the seedlings
(twenty in number of each kind) became very unhealthy, some growing only
a few inches in height, and very few to their proper height. The result,
therefore, cannot be fully trusted; and it would be useless to give the
measurements in detail. In order to strike as fair an average as
possible, I first excluded all the plants under 50 inches in height,
thus rejecting all the most unhealthy plants. The six self-fertilised
thus left were on an average 66.86 inches high; the eight intercrossed
plants 63.2 high; and the seven Colchester-crossed 65.37 high; so that
there was not much difference between the three sets, the
self-fertilised plants having a slight advantage. Nor was there any
great difference when only the plants under 36 inches in height were
excluded. Nor again when all the plants, however much dwarfed and
unhealthy, were included. In this latter case the Colchester-crossed
gave the lowest average of all; and if these plants had been in any
marked manner superior to the other two lots, as from my former
experience I fully expected they would have been, I cannot but think
that some vestige of such superiority would have been evident,
notwithstanding the very unhealthy condition of most of the plants. No
advantage, as far as we can judge, was derived from intercrossing two of