The average number of seeds in the three forms was ascertained by counting them in eight fine selected capsules taken from plants growing wild, and the result was, as we have seen, for the long-styled (neglecting decimals) 93, mid-styled 130, and short-styled 83. I should not have trusted in these ratios had I not possessed a number of plants in my garden which, owing to their youth, did not yield the full complement of seed, but were of the same age and grew under the same conditions, and were freely visited by bees. I took six fine capsules from each, and found the average to be for the long-styled 80, for the mid-styled 97, and for the short-styled 61. Lastly, legitimate unions effected by me between the three forms gave, as may be seen in the following tables, for the long- styled an average of 90 seeds, for the mid-styled 117, and for the short-styled 71. So that we have good concurrent evidence of a difference in the average production of seed by the three forms. To show that the unions effected by me often produced their full effect and may be trusted, I may state that one mid- styled capsule yielded 151 good seeds, which is the same number as in the finest wild capsule which I examined. Some artificially fertilised short- and long- styled capsules produced a greater number of seeds than was ever observed by me in wild plants of the same forms, but then I did not examine many of the latter. This plant, I may add, offers a remarkable instance, how profoundly ignorant we are of the life-conditions of a species. Naturally it grows “in wet ditches, watery places, and especially on the banks of streams,” and though it produces so many minute seeds, it never spreads on the adjoining land; yet, when planted in my garden, on clayey soil lying over chalk, and which is so dry that a rush cannot be found, it thrives luxuriantly, grows to above 6 feet in height, produces self-sown seedlings, and (which is a severer test) is as fertile as in a state of nature. Nevertheless it would be almost a miracle to find this plant growing spontaneously on such land as that in my garden. According to Vaucher and Wirtgen, the three forms coexist in all parts of Europe. Some friends gathered for me in North Wales a number of twigs from separate plants growing near one another, and classified them. My son did the same in Hampshire, and here is the result:-- TABLE 4.22. Lythrum salicaria. Classification according to form of flower. Column 1: Place of origin. Column 2: Long-styled. Column 3: Mid-styled. Column 4: Short-styled. Column 5: Total. North Wales : 95 : 97 : 72 : 264. Hampshire : 53 : 38 : 38 : 129. Total : 148 : 135 : 110 : 393.