Independently of any external cause which could be detected, the self-fertilised plants were more liable to premature death than were the crossed; and this seems to me a curious fact. Whilst the seedlings were very young, if one died its antagonist was pulled up and thrown away, and I believe that many more of the self-fertilised died at this early age than of the crossed; but I neglected to keep any record. With Beta vulgaris, however, it is certain that a large number of the self-fertilised seeds perished after germinating beneath the ground, whereas the crossed seeds sown at the same time did not thus suffer. When a plant died at a somewhat more advanced age the fact was recorded; and I find in my notes that out of several hundred plants, only seven of the crossed died, whilst of the self-fertilised at least twenty-nine were thus lost, that is more than four times as many. Mr. Galton, after examining some of my tables, remarks: “It is very evident that the columns with the self-fertilised plants include the larger number of exceptionally small plants;” and the frequent presence of such puny plants no doubt stands in close relation with their liability to premature death. The self-fertilised plants of Petunia completed their growth and began to wither sooner than did the intercrossed plants; and these latter considerably before the offspring from a cross with a fresh stock. PERIOD OF FLOWERING. In some cases, as with Digitalis, Dianthus, and Reseda, a larger number of the crossed than of the self-fertilised plants threw up flower-stems; but this probably was merely the result of their greater power of growth; for in the first generation of Lobelia fulgens, in which the self-fertilised plants greatly exceeded in height the crossed plants, some of the latter failed to throw up flower-stems. With a large number of species, the crossed plants exhibited a well-marked tendency to flower before the self-fertilised ones growing in the same pots. It should however be remarked that no record was kept of the flowering of many of the species; and when a record was kept, the flowering of the first plant in each pot was alone observed, although two or more pairs grew in the same pot. I will now give three lists,--one of the species in which the first plant that flowered was a crossed one,--a second in which the first that flowered was a self-fertilised plant,--and a third of those which flowered at the same time. [SPECIES, OF WHICH THE FIRST PLANTS THAT FLOWERED WERE OF CROSSED PARENTAGE. Ipomoea purpurea. I record in my notes that in all ten generations many of the crossed plants flowered before the self-fertilised; but no details were kept. Mimulus luteus (First Generation). Ten flowers on the crossed plants were fully expanded before one on the self-fertilised. Mimulus luteus (Second and Third Generation). In both these generations a crossed plant flowered before one of the self-fertilised in all three pots.