the Fecundation of Vegetables . 201 
(unlike that of the pea) freely admits the ingress of adventitious 
farina, and is thence very liable to sport in varieties. Some of 
those I obtained were excellent ; others very bad ; and none of 
them permanent. By separating the best varieties, a most abun- 
dant crop was produced ; but its quality was not quite equal to 
the quantity, and all the discarded varieties again made their 
appearance. It appeared to me an extraordinary circumstance, 
that, in the years 1795 and 1796, when almost the whole crop 
of corn in the island was blighted, the varieties thus obtained, 
and these only, escaped, in this neighbourhood, though sown 
in several different soils and situations. 
My success on the apple (as far as long experience and at- 
tention have enabled me to judge from the cultivated appear- 
ance of trees which have not yet borne fruit) has been fully 
equal to my hopes. But, as the improvement of this fruit was 
the first object of my attention, no probable means of improve- 
ment, either from soil or aspect, were neglected. The plants, 
however, which I obtained from my efforts to unite the good 
qualities of two kinds of apple, seem to possess the greatest 
health and luxuriance of growth, as well as the most promising 
appearance in other respects. In some of these, the character 
of the male appears to prevail ; in others, that of the female ; 
and in others, both appear blended, or neither is distinguishable. 
These variations, which were often observable in the seeds 
taken from a single apple, evidently arise from the want of per- 
manence in the character of this fruit, when raised from seed. 
The results of similar experiments on another fruit, the 
grape, were nearly the same as of those on the apple, except 
that, by mingling the farina of a black and a white grape, just 
as the blossoms of the latter were expanding, I sometimes ob- 
