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CROSS IMPREGNATION. 



ONE of the most important advantages which has 

 arisen from the discovery of the sexes of plants, is 

 the practicability of improving both flowers and fruit 

 by what is called cross impregnation. f By this means 

 we find that plants are susceptible or partaking of each 

 other's forms, colours, and qualities, thereby allowing 

 the combination of excellencies obtainable in no other 

 way. 



When we contemplate what has been accomplished 

 in the amelioration of our native fruits, or consider 

 how much our culinary vegetables have been improved, 

 we can attribute these beneficial results to nothing 

 else than this susceptibility of vegetables receiving 

 sexual impressions from each other. 



In former times and before the study of plants had 

 become a science, many improvements had taken 

 place by accident. The improved sort, whether a 

 new variety of a flower or fruit, had a conspicuous 

 station in the collection of the orchardist or in the 

 bed of the florist. Its qualities were imperceptibly 

 distributed around among its congeners by no other 

 agent than the unconscious bee flitting from flower 

 to flower, or by the less certain instrumentality of 



