264 CROSS IMPREGNATION. 



the passing breeze. In time, however, botanical 

 physiologists, investigating the powers and principles 

 of vegetation, and seeing that the male matter or 

 pollen of plants was a deciduous and transferable body, 

 conceived the idea of obtaining by manipulation, what 

 had before been only adventitiously accomplished by 

 the bee and the breeze. 



Conveying the male to the female plants of the 

 Linnean class Dicecia, and the male to the female 

 flowers of the class Monoscia is an old practice ; but 

 that of transferring the pollen of hermaphrodite 

 flowers from one to another is a modern invention. 

 Whoever was the first practitioner of this ingenious 

 art is not, perhaps, exactly known ; but every body in 

 the horticultural world is aware of the valuable 

 results which have followed the judicious experiments 

 of A. T. Knight, Esq. president of the Horticultural 

 Society of London. That gentleman, by the skilful 

 transference of the pollen of one fruit tree to another, 

 has produced some excellent sub-varieties of fruits 

 which are estimable acquisitions to the dessert. His 

 example and writings on the subject, have extended 

 the powers and practice of the florist as well as the 

 fruit grower ; valuable consequences have already 

 taken place ; and a boundless field is opened to the 

 cultivator for farther improvement in every branch 

 of gardening. 



The impregnation of the ovulae of one plant by 

 the pollen of another, is a phenomenon which cannot 

 be illustrated in any other way than by comparing it 



