By Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq. 369 



give existence to mule plants. I do not, however, feel any 

 anxiety, or wish, to defend my own hypothetical opinions 

 upon this subject : on the contrary, I shall be most bappy 

 to see them proved to be erroneous ; and my chief object in 

 addressing the present communication to the Horticultural 

 Society is to point out a circumstance which is more favour- 

 able to Mr. Herbert's opinions, than any other which has 

 come under my observations. 



I sent to the Society, some years ago, a fruit which sprang 

 from a seed of a Sweet Almond and the pollen of a Peach 

 blossom, and which in every respect presented the character 

 of a perfectly melting Peach. When the tree, which afforded 

 that fruit, first produced blossoms, I introduced into them 

 the pollen of another Peach tree, with the view of obtaining 

 more improved varieties of the Peach of this family : and 

 the necessary preparation of such blossoms prevented my 

 noticing an imperfection, which I have since observed in 

 them. Little or no pollen is ever produced in them ; and 

 though the tree has borne well subsequently, upon the open 

 wall, and has produced perfect seeds without any particular 

 attention having been paid to it, I suspect that its blossoms 

 have been fecundated by those of some adjoining Nectarine 

 trees. Having, however, often observed, that varieties of the 

 same acknowledged identical species, when one was in a 

 highly cultivated, and the other in a perfectly wild state, did 

 not readily succeed, when grafted upon each other, owing, 

 probably, to the very different qualities of their circulating 

 fluids, I conceived it possible that the same causes might 

 have prevented a perfect union at once taking place between 



