What a capital observer you are! and how well you have worked the
primulas. All your facts are new to me. It is likely that I overrate the
interest of the subject; but it seems to me that you ought to publish a
paper on the subject. It would, however, greatly add to the value if you
were to cover up any of the forms having pistil and anther of the same
height, and prove that they were fully self-fertile. The occurrence of
dimorphic and non-dimorphic species in the same genus is quite the
same as I find in Linum. (636/1. Darwin finished his paper on Linum
in December 1862, and it was published in the "Linn. Soc. Journal" in
1863.) Have any of the forms of Primula, which are non-dimorphic, been
propagated for some little time by seed in garden? I suppose not. I
ask because I find in P. sinensis a third rather fluctuating form,
apparently due to culture, with stigma and anthers of same height.
I have been working successive generations homomorphically of this
Primula, and think I am getting curious results; I shall probably
publish next autumn; and if you do not (but I hope you will) publish
yourself previously, I should be glad to quote in abstract some of your
facts. But I repeat that I hope you will yourself publish. Hottonia is
dimorphic, with pollen of very different sizes in the two forms. I think
you are mistaken about Siphocampylus, but I feel rather doubtful in
saying this to so good an observer. In Lobelia the closed pistil grows
rapidly, and pushes out the pollen and then the stigma expands, and the
flower in function is monoecious; from appearance I believe this is the
case with your plant. I hope it is so, for this plant can hardly require
a cross, being in function monoecious; so that dimorphism in such a case
would be a heavy blow to understanding its nature or good in all other
cases. I see few periodicals: when have you published on Clivia? I
suppose that you did not actually count the seeds in the hybrids in
comparison with those of the parent-forms; but this is almost necessary
after Gartner's observations. I very much hope you will make a good
series of comparative trials on the same plant of Tacsonia. (636/2. See
Scott in "Linn. Soc. Journal," VIII.) I have raised 700-800 seedlings
from cowslips, artificially fertilised with care; and they presented not
a hair's-breadth approach to oxlips. I have now seed in pots of cowslip
fertilised by pollen of primrose, and I hope they will grow; I have also
got fine seedlings from seed of wild oxlips; so I hope to make out the
case. You speak of difficulties on Natural Selection: there are indeed
plenty; if ever you have spare time (which is not likely, as I am sure
you must be a hard worker) I should be very glad to hear difficulties
from one who has observed so much as you have. The majority of
criticisms on the "Origin" are, in my opinion, not worth the paper they
are printed on. Sir C. Lyell is coming out with what, I expect, will
prove really good remarks. (636/3.
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