200 Mr. Knight’s Experiments on 
observe that the character, either of the male or female, in this 
plant, at all preponderated in the offspring ; but, as this point 
appeared interesting, I made a few trials to ascertain it. And, 
as the foregoing observations had occurred in experiments made 
principally to obtain new and improved varieties of the pea, for 
garden culture, I chose, for a similar purpose, the more hardy 
varieties usually sown in the fields. By introducing the farina 
of the largest and most luxuriant kinds into the blossoms of the 
most diminutive, and by reversing this process, I found that the 
powers of the male and female, in their effects on the offspring, 
are exactly equal. The vigour of the growth, the size of the 
seeds produced, and the season of maturity, were the same, 
though the one was a very early, and the other a late variety. 
I had, in this experiment, a striking instance of the stimulative 
effects of crossing the breeds ; for the smallest variety, whose 
height rarely exceeded two feet, was increased to six feet; 
whilst the height of the large and luxuriant kind was very little 
diminished. By this process, it is evident, that any number of 
new varieties may be obtained ; and it is highly probable, that 
many of these will be found better calculated to correct the de- 
fects of different soils and situations, than any we have at pre- 
sent ; for, I imagine that all we now possess, have in a great 
measure been the produce of accident; and it will rarely happen, 
in this or any other case, that accident has done all that art 
will be found able to accomplish. 
The success of my endeavours to produce improved varieties 
of the pea, induced me to try some experiments on wheat ; but 
these did not succeed to my expectations. I readily obtained 
as many varieties as I wished, by merely sowing the different 
kinds together ; for the structure of the blossom of this plant 
