NINTH GENERATION OF CROSSED AND SELF-FERTILISED PLANTS.

Fourteen crossed plants, spontaneously self-fertilised, and fourteen
self-fertilised plants spontaneously self-fertilised, yielded capsules
(the average number of seeds per capsule not having been ascertained) in
the proportion of : 100 to 26.

PLANTS DERIVED FROM A CROSSED WITH A FRESH STOCK COMPARED WITH
INTERCROSSED PLANTS.

The offspring of intercrossed plants of the ninth generation, crossed by
a fresh stock, compared with plants of the same stock intercrossed
during ten generations, both sets of plants left uncovered and naturally
fertilised, produced capsules by weight as : 100 to 51.

We see in this table that the crossed plants are always in some degree
more productive than the self-fertilised plants, by whatever standard
they are compared. The degree differs greatly; but this depends chiefly
on whether an average was taken of the seeds alone, or of the capsules
alone, or of both combined. The relative superiority of the crossed
plants is chiefly due to their producing a much greater number of
capsules, and not to each capsule containing a larger average number of
seeds. For instance, in the third generation the crossed and
self-fertilised plants produced capsules in the ratio of 100 to 38,
whilst the seeds in the capsules on the crossed plants were to those on
the self-fertilised plants only as 100 to 94. In the eighth generation
the capsules on two self-fertilised plants (not included in table 2/18),
grown in separate pots and thus not subjected to any competition,
yielded the large average of 5.1 seeds. The smaller number of capsules
produced by the self-fertilised plants may be in part, but not