CH. XI.] THE FLOWERS. 105 



hair pencil to apply pollen to the stigmas of his 

 forced melons, cucumbers, cherries, and peaches. 



That seed can be rendered fertile by the agency 

 of other flowers than their o^Yn parent has long 

 been known, for it had come within the obseiwation 

 of the IsraeHtes, some three thousand four hundred 

 years now past, as may be gathered from Deutero- 

 nomy, xxii. 9 ; Jeremiah, ii. -21 ; and Le^^ticus, 

 xix. 19 ; but it was not rendered useful knowledge, 

 until the late President of the Horticultui'al So- 

 ciety, Mr. Knight, commenced his experiments in 

 1787. Mr. Bradley, seventy years before, had de- 

 monstrated that hybrid plants may be grown, par- 

 taking of the qualities of both their parents ; but to 

 Mr. Knight first occurred the happy thought that 

 the good characteristics of one parent might thus be 

 employed to correct deficiencies which would other- 

 wise occui- in the offspring of another parent of the 

 same species. Since his time, this system of cross- 

 breeding has been practised by gardeners upon 

 almost every genus of plant that comes under their 

 care, and by its agency the size, colour, and form 

 of flowers have been improved and varied ; the mag- 

 nitude and flavour of fruits have been increased; 

 and tender plants have been made to bring forth 

 a hardy progeny. 



Bradley had only carried out the suggestions of 

 others, for both Lawson and Evelyn, half a century 



o2 



