22 #EW VARIETIES. 



CHAPTER V. 



ON THE PROPAGATION OF NEW VARIETIES, 



On tins head, we are indebted to the accurate ob- 

 servation of Mr. Knight, for a curious discovery in 

 the natural history of fruit trees : each blossom of the 

 apple, contains about twenty male and five female 

 parts a few days before the expansion of the blos- 

 soms, he opened the petals and destroyed all the 

 males, leaving the females uninjured : when the blos- 

 soms were fully expanded, he impregnated them with 

 farina taken from another tree with which he wished 

 to cross the kind all the impregnated fruits grew 

 rapidly, some of the products partook of the proper- 

 ties of the male, others of the female parent ; and in 

 some, both were blended : 1 have seen an exemplifi- 

 cation of this principle of nature exhibited, in the mix- 

 ture of the properties of a Newton Pippin and a Rus- 

 seting, from the accidental intermingling of the bran- 

 ches of two trees growing in an orchard at Trenton 



