ON THE INFLUENCE OF MALE AND FEMALE PARENTS. 345 



It is perhaps also proper to state, that the predominance of the cha- 

 racter of the female parent could scarcely have arisen from any defective 

 action of the pollen ; for, except in cases where superfcetation took place, 

 I have invariably found the effect of a very large or a very small quantity 

 of pollen to be invariably the same in its influence on the offspring ; and 

 in the greater part of the experiments from which I have drawn the 

 preceding conclusions, more than ten times as much pollen was deposited 

 on the stigmata as could have been deposited in unmutilated blossoms by 

 the ordinary means employed by nature. 



In all attempts to discriminate the different influence of the male 

 and female parent on the offspring of animals many difficulties pre- 

 sent themselves, owing to the intermixtures which have been made of 

 the different breeds of domesticated animals of every species, and the 

 consequent absence of all hereditary permanency in the character of 

 each variety. For under these circumstances, the offspring will be very 

 frequently found to show little resemblance either to its male or female 

 parent, either in form, or stature, or colour. It will therefore be neces- 

 sary, before I enter on the subject of viviparous animals, to observe that 

 when I apply the terms large and small to the male or female parent, I 

 extend the meaning of those terms to the parentage from which the male 

 and female descend, and not to the size of the individual only which 

 becomes the immediate parent of the offspring. 



Mr. Cline has observed, in a communication to the Board of Agricul- 

 ture, that if the male and female parent differ considerably in size, the 

 dimensions of the foetus at the birth will be regulated much more by the 

 size of the female than of the male parent ; and if the meaning of the 

 terms large and small be extended to the varieties as well as to the indi- 

 viduals, his remark is perfectly just. But experience compels me wholly 

 to reject the inference that he has drawn respecting the advantages of 

 propagating from large, in preference to small females. 



Nature has given to the offspring of many animals (those of the 

 sheep, the cow, and the mare afford familiar examples) the power at 

 an early age to accompany their parents in flight; and the legs of 

 such animals are very nearly of the same length at the birth, as when 

 they have attained their perfect growth. When the female parent is 

 large, and the foetus consequently so, the offspring will be large at its 

 birth in proportion to the bulk it will ultimately attain, and its legs will 

 thence be long comparatively with the depth of the chest and shoulders. 

 When, on the contrary, the female is small, and the foetus so, at the 

 birth, the length of the legs of the young animal will be short com- 



