Mr. Knight on the comparative Influence , &c. 393 
and the same opinions have been generally entertained by 
more modern naturalists. But the Swedish philosopher ap- 
pears to have been misled, by the striking predominance of 
the character of the male parent in male animals, and to have 
drawn his conclusions somewhat too generally: for I have 
observed that seedling plants, when propagated from male 
and female parents of distinct characters and permanent habits, 
generally, though with some few exceptions, inherit much 
more of character of the female, than of the male parent, and 
the same remark is applicable, in some respects, to the animal 
world, as I shall point out in the succeeding narrative. 
My experiments were made on many different species of 
fruit-trees ; but most extensively, and under the most advan- 
tageous circumstances, on the apple-tree ; and as the results 
were all in unison with each other, it will be necessary to 
trouble you only with an account of some of the experiments 
which were made on that species of fruit-tree. 
The apple, or crab of England, and of Siberia, however dis- 
similar in habit and character, appear to constitute a single 
species only; in which much variation has been effected by 
the influence of climate on successive generations : for the 
two varieties readily bred together, and the offspring, whether 
raised from the seeds of the Siberian, or British variety, were 
prolific to a most exuberant extent. But there was a very 
considerable degree of dissimilarity in the appearance of the 
offspring ; and the leaves, and general habits of each, pre- 
sented an obvious prevalence of the character of the female 
parent. The buds of those plants, which had sprung from 
the seeds of the cultivated apple, did not unfold quite so early 
in the spring; and their fruits generally exceeded, very con- 
