154 On the Species of the Genus Primula in Essex.
(in his 'Effects of Cross and Self-Fertilization in the Vegetable
Kingdom') is a method which Nature takes every precaution
to prevent, and only resorts to it when cross-fertilization fails
to be effected. Even if some pollen gets on to the stigma of
its own flower (or, in plants like Primulas on a flower of its
own form), no perfect, and certainly no immediate, fertilizing
action takes place; and if, twenty-four hours after, pollen
from another plant (or in Primulas, from a plant of the
opposite form) be placed upon the stigma, it at once obliterates
all traces of the action of the first pollen, and fertilizes the
ovules in a "legitimate" manner. The two forms are very
constant. Darwin says:—" I have examined a large number
of flowers.....and have never met with any transitional
states between the two forms in plants growing in a state of
Nature. There is never the slightest doubt under which form
a plant ought to be classed."10 As will be seen in the next
section of this paper, I also have examined a very large
number of plants, and must beg leave to differ a little from
Mr. Darwin on this point. I have met with a few equal-styled
flowers, although I have seen nothing like the specimens
Herr Breitenbach observed in Germany.11 Among other
extraordinary plants, he met with two bearing equal-, short-,
and long-styled flowers. In this case some most unusual
disturbing element must have been at work, which, as my
tables of observations will hereafter show, does not exist in
Essex; and, like Mr. Darwin, I have heard of no other such
case in Nature. Out of at least 13,200 Primula flowers
examined, I have only met with forty flowers which could be
described as equal-styled. I do not attach much importance
to these, regarding them as due to imperfect development of
the style, rather than as a reversion to any original state—
indeed I suppose that, strictly speaking, they were not equal-
styled at all, for, instead of having the anthers and stigma
both on the same level at the top of the tube as should have
been the case if truly equal-styled, they had the anthers half-
way up, as in the long-styled form, while the stigma (which
often showed signs of imperfection) was generally about on a
level with them. Reference to the Tables given in the next
section will afford further information concerning these
flowers. Equal-stylism seems to appear more frequently in
cultivated plants than among wild ones. My friend, Mr.
Richardson, of Newcastle, found one Primrose plant bearing
twenty-one long-styled flowers, and thirteen blossoms that
10 'Forms of Flowers,' p. 17.
11 Ibid., p. 34.