It is a general rule that the most perfect flowers do
not produce seed. At the height of the flowering period the external
circumstances are the most favorable, and the flowering branches still
constitute the stronger axes of the plants. Hence we may infer that
sterility will prevail precisely in this period. Many varieties are
known to yield only seeds from the very last flowers, as for instance
some [509] double begonias. Others bear only seed on their weaker
lateral branches, as the double camomile, or become fertile only towards
the fall, as is often the case with the above quoted Erfurt variety of
the blue-bottle. As far as I have been able to ascertain, such seeds are
quite adequate for the reproduction and perpetuation of the double
varieties, but the question whether there are differences between the
seeds of the more or less double flowers of the same plants still
remains open. It is very probable, from a theoretical point of view,
that such differences exist, but perhaps they are so slight, as to have
practically no bearing on the question.
On the ground of their wide range of variability, the double varieties
must be regarded as pertaining to the group of ever-sporting forms. On
one side they fluctuate in the direction towards such petalomanous
flowers as are borne by the stocks and others, which we have previously
discussed.
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