1 9 & Mr. Knight’s Experiments on 
existence of which has been admitted amongst animals) could 
also take place in the vegetable world. For, as the offspring of 
a white pea is always white, unless the farina of a coloured kind 
be introduced into the blossom, and, as the colour of the gray 
one is always transferred to its offspring, though the female be 
white, it readily occurred to me, that if the farina of both were 
mingled, or applied at the same moment, the offspring of each 
could be easily distinguished. 
My first experiment was not altogether successful ; for the 
offspring of five pods (the whole which escaped the birds) re- 
ceived their colour from the coloured male. There was, how- 
ever, a strong resemblance to the other male, in the growth and 
character of more than one of the plants ; and the seeds of se- 
veral, in the autumn, very closely resembled it in every thing 
but colour. In this experiment, I used the farina of a white 
pea, which possessed the remarkable property of shrivelling ex- 
cessively when ripe ; and, in the second year, I obtained white 
seeds, from the gray ones above mentioned, perfectly similar to 
it. I am strongly disposed to believe, that the seeds were here 
of common parentage ; but I do not conceive myself to be in 
possession of facts sufficient to enable me to speak with decision 
on this question. 
If, however, the female afford the first organised atom, and 
the farina act only as a stimulus, it appears to me by no means 
impossible, that the explosion of two vesicles of farina, at the 
same moment, (taken from different plants,) may afford seeds 
(as I have supposed) of common parentage; and, as I am un- 
able to discover any source of inaccuracy in this experiment, 
I must believe this to have happened. 
Another species of superfoetation (if I have justly applied 
