The Fertilisation of Linum

IN the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia for 1902, pp. 33–36, is a very interesting paper by the late Mr. Thomas Meehan, treating of some points in the life-history of certain plants. On p. 36, Mr. Meehan says:—“Mr. Darwin once stated that one might as well use organic dust as to endeavour to get seeds of Linum pereune by the aid of its own pollen. I found Linum pereune of our Rocky Mountains abundantly fertile with own-pollen, and said so in one of my papers.” As some anti-Darwinian will probably make much of this statement, it is as well to say that the Rocky Mountain plant is a distinct species, Linum lewisii, Pursh.