460 On the Fecundation of Vegetables^ 



fimilar to it. I am ftrongly difpofed to believe that the feeds were here of comrooo 

 parentage ; but I do not conceive myfelF to be in poffeflion of fafts fufficient to enable 

 me to fpeak with decifion on this queflion. 

 ' If, however, the female afford the firft organized a4in, and the farina aft only as a 

 ftimulus, it appears to me by no means impoffible that the explofion of two,vcric,les of 

 farina at the fame moment (taken from different plants) may afford feeds (as I have fup- 

 pofed) of common parentage ; and as I am unable to difcover any fource of inaccuracy 

 in this experiment, I muft believe this to have happened. 



Another fpecies of fuperfcetation (if I have juftly applied that term to a procefs ir\ 

 which one feed appears to have been the offspring of two males) has occurred to me fo 

 often as to remove all poffibility of doubt as to its exiflcnce. In 1797, the year after 

 I had feen the refult of the laft mentioned experiment, having prepared a great many 

 white bloffoms, I introduced the farina of a white and that of a grey nearly at the fame 

 moment into each ; and as in the laft year the charafter of the coloured male had pre- 

 vailed, I ufed its farina more fparingly than that of the white one ; and now almoft 

 every pod afforded plants of different colours. The majority, however, were white ; 

 but the charaflers of the two kinds were not fufficiently dillinft to allow me to judge 

 with precifion whether any of the feeds were produced of common parentage or not. 

 In the laft year I was more fortunate ; having prepared bloffoms of the little early frame 

 pea, I introduced its own farina, and immediately afterwards that of a very large and late 

 grey kind, and I fowed the feeds thus obtained, in the end of laft fummer. Many ot 

 them retained the colour and charafler of the fmall early pea, not in the flighteft degree 

 altered, and bloffomed before they were eighteen inches high ; whllft others (taken from 

 the fame pods) whofe colour was changed, grew to the height of more than four feet 

 and were killed by the froft before any bloffoms appeared. 



It is evident that in thefe inftances fuperfoetation took place; and it is equally evident 

 that the feeds were not all of common parentage. Should fubfequent experience evince 

 that a fingle plant may be the offspring of two males, the analogy between animal and 

 vegetable nature may induce fome curious ccnjeflure relative to the procefs of genera- 

 tion in the animal world. 



/To be continued J 



