>0L. LXXXIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 507 



rect the defects of different soils arid situations, than any we have at present; for I 

 imagine that all we now possess, have in a great measure been the produce of acci- 

 dent; and it will rarely happen, in this or any other case, that accident has done 

 all that art will be found able to accomplish. 



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

 me to try some experiments on wheat; but these did not succeed to my expecta- 

 tions. I readily obtained as many varieties as I wished, by merely sowing the dif- 

 ferent kinds together; for the structure of the blossom of this plant, unlike that 

 of the pea, freely admits the ingress of adventitious farina, and is thence very liable 

 to sport in varieties. Some of those I obtained very excellent; others very bad; 

 and none of them permanent. By separating the best varieties, a most abundant 

 crop was produced ; but its quality was not quite equal to the quantity, and all the 

 discarded varieties again made their appearance. It appeared to be an extraordinary 

 circumstance, that in the years 1795 and 1796, when almost the whole crop of 

 corn in the island was blighted, the varieties thus obtained, and these only, 

 escaped, in this neighbourhood, though sown in several different soils and situations. 

 My success 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 the fruit 

 was the first object of my attention, no probable means of improvement, either 

 from soil or aspect, were neglected. The plants however which I obtained from my 

 efforts to unite the good qualities of 2 kinds of apple, seem to possess the greatest 

 health and luxuriance of growth, as well as the most promising appearance in other 

 respects. In some of these, the character of the male appears to prevail; in 

 others, that of the female; and in others, both appear blended, or neither is 

 distinguishable. These variations, which were often observable in the seeds taken 

 from a single apple, evidently arise from the want of permanence in the character 

 of this fruit, when raised from seed. 



The results of similar experiments on another fruit, the grape, were nearly the 

 same as of those on the apple, except that, by mingling the farina of a black and a 

 white grape, just as the blossoms of the latter were expanding, I sometimes ob- 

 tained plants, from the same berry, so dissimilar, that I had good reason to believe 

 them the produce of superfcetation. By taking off the cups, and destroying the 

 immature male parts, as in the pea, I perfectly succeeded in combining the cha- 

 racters of different varieties of this fruit, as far as the changes of form and autumnal 

 tints, in the leaves of the offspring, will allow me to judge. 



Many experiments, of the same kind, were tried on other plants ; but it is suffi- 

 cient to say that all tended to evince, that improved varieties of every fruit and 

 esculent plant may be obtained by this process, and that nature intended that a 

 sexual intercourse should take place between neighbouring plants of the same spe- 

 cies. The probability of this will I think be apparent, when we take a view of the 

 variety of methods which nature has taken to disperse the farina, even of those 



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