210 On thecompdrativc Infiaence of 



wires are for connecting the apparatus with dec-' 

 trometers, &c. 

 Fig. 7» A couple of small bells supported on glass pillars, 

 with a brass ball suspended from a wire, used as a 

 clapper to ring the bells. 



On Wednesday night, 14th March, I put into a closet a^ 

 couple of bells, communicating with the three rods above 

 Itientioned in a box ; they then began to ring, and are now 

 ringing: — how long they will continue so I cannot say, per- 

 haps some change in the weather may soon occasion the 

 clapper to cease vibrating. 



I remain, &c. 



B. M. FORSTER. 



Walthamstow, Essex, 20th March 1810. 



XXXVI. On the comparative Influence of Male and Female^ 

 Parents on their Offspring, By Thomas Andrew 

 Knight, Esq., F.R,S.f In a Letter to the Right Hon. 

 Sir Joseph Banks, Barf. K.B. P.R.S."^ 



My Dear Sir, X have been engaged, during many years, 

 in experiments on fruit-trees, of which the o^ect has been 

 to discover the best means of forming new varieties, that 

 may be found better calculate.! for the climate of Britain 

 than those at present cultivated. In this inquiry my efforts 

 have been always most successful, when I propagated from 

 the males of one variety and the females of another } and 

 I was enabled, by the same means^ to ascertain more ac- 

 curately, than had previously been done, the comparative 

 influence of the male and female parent on the character 

 of the offspring. The analogy that subsists between plants 

 and animals, in almost every thing which respects genera- 

 tion, induced me also to attend very minutely to similar 

 experiments in which I engaged on some species of ani- 

 mals ; and as the repetition of such experiments would ne- 

 cessarily require a very considerable space of time, and as 

 the results seem to lead to conclusions that may be of public 

 utility, I have thought the following account sufBciently 

 interesting to induce me to address it to you. 



Linnaeus conceived, that the character of the male parent 

 predominated in the exterior parts both of plants and 

 animals ; and the same opinions have been generally en- 

 tertained by more modern naturalists. But the Swedish 



^ Philoeophical Transactiona for 1810, Part 11. \ 



philosopher 



