the Fecundation of Vegetables-. igg 
that term to a process in which one seed appears to have been 
the offspring of two males) has occurred to me so often, as to 
remove all possibility of doubt as to its existence. In 1797, the 
year after I had seen the result of the last mentioned experiment, 
having prepared a great many white blossoms, I introduced the 
farina of a white and that of a gray pea, nearly at the same mo- 
ment, into each ; and 1 as, in the last year, the character of the co- 
loured male had prevailed, I used its farina more sparingly than 
that'of the white one; and now almost every pod afforded plants 
of different colours. The majority, however, were white ; but 
the characters of the two kinds were not sufficiently distinct to 
allow me to judge with precision, whether any of the seeds pro- 
duced were of common parentage or not. In the last year, I 
was more fortunate : having prepared blossoms of the little 
early frame pea, I introduced its own farina, and immediately 
afterwards that of a very large and late gray kind, and I sowed 
the seeds thus obtained in the end of the last summer. Many 
of them retained the colour and character of the small early 
pea, not in the slightest degree altered, and blossomed before 
they were eighteen inches high ; whilst others, ( taken from the 
same pods,) whose colour was changed, grew to the height of 
more than four feet, and were killed by the frost, before any 
blossoms appeared. 
It is evident, that in these instances superfoetation took place; 
and it is equally evident, that the seeds were not all of common 
parentage. Should subsequent experience evince, that a single 
plant may be the offspring -of two males, the analogy between 
animal and vegetable nature may induce some curious conjec- 
ture, relative to the process of generation in the animal world. 
In the course of the preceding experiments, I could never 
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