'jap On t%e Fecundation of Vegetables, 



that the powers of the male and female, in their effeQs on the offspring, are exadlly^equaV 

 The vigour of the growth, the fize of the feeds produced, and the feafon of maturity were 

 the fame, though the one was a very early, and the other a late variety. I had in this 

 experiment, a ftriking inftance of the ftimulative effects of crofling the breeds ; for the 

 fmalleft variety, whofe height rarely exceeded two feet, was incrcafed to fix feet ; wliilft 

 the height of the large and luxuriant kind was very little diminiftied. By this procefs it is 

 evident, that any number of new varieties may be obtained; and it is highly probable, that 

 many of thefe will be found better calculated to correifb the defeds of different foils and 

 fituations, than any we have at prefent ; for I imagine that all we now poffefs have in a 

 great manner been the produce of accident ; and it will rarely happen in this, or any other 

 cafe, that accident has done all that art will be found able to accomplifh. 



The fuccefs of my endeavours to produce improved varieties of the pea, induced me to 

 try fome experiments on wheat ; but thefe did not fucceed to my expeftations. I readily 

 obtained as many varieties as I wiflied, by merely fowing the different kinds together; for 

 the ftruGure of the bloffom of this plant (unlike that of the pea) freely admits the ingrefs 

 of adventitious farina, and is thence very liable to flioot in varieties. Some of thofa I 

 tbtained were excellent ; others very bad; and none of them permanent. By feparating 

 the beft varieties, a molt abundant crop was produced ; but its quality was not quite equal 

 to the quantity, and all the difcarded varieties again made their appearance. It appeared 

 to me an extraordinary circumftance, that in the years 1795 and 1796, when almoft the 

 whole crop of corn in the ifland was blighted, the varieties thus obtained, and thefe only, 

 cfcaped in this neighbourhood, though fown in feveral different foils and fituations. 



My fuccefs on the apple (as far as long experience and attention have enabled me to 

 judge, from the cultivated appearance of trees which have not yet borne fruit) has been 

 fully equal to my hopes. But as the improvement of' this fruit was the firft obje£t of at- 

 tention, no probable means of improvement, either from foil or afpeft, were negledled. 

 The plants, however, which I obtained from my efforts to unite the good qualities of 

 two kinds of apple, feem to poffefs the greateft health and luxuriance of growth, as well 

 as the moft promiling appearance in other refpe£ls. In fome of thefe the character of the 

 male appears to prevail ; in others that of the female ; and in others both appear blended, 

 or neither is diftinguidiable. Thefe variations, which were often obfervable in the 

 feeds taken from a fingle apple, evidently arife from the want of permanence in the cha- 

 ra£ler of this fruit, when raifed from feed. 



The rcfults of fimilar experiments on another fruit, the grape, were nearly the fame as 

 thofe on the apple, except that by mingling the farina of a black and white grape, juft as 

 the bloffoms of the latter were expanding, I fometimes obtained plants from the. fame 

 berry fo diffimilar, that I had good rcafon to believe them the produce of fuperfoetation. 

 By taking off the cups, and deftroying the immature fmall parts (as in the pea) I pcrfe£lly 

 fucceeded in combining the charafters of different varieties of this fruit, as far as the 

 ,changcs of form and autumnal tints in the leaves of the offspring will allow me to judge. 



3 • Many 



