$94 Mr. Knight on the comparative Influence of 
siderably, in size those which were produced by the trees 
which derived their existence from the seeds of the Siberian 
crab. There was also a prevalence of the character of the 
female parent in the form of the fruit ; but the same degree 
of prevalence did not extend to the quality and flavour of the 
fruit ; for the richest apple that I have ever seen, and which 
afforded expressed juice of much higher specific gravity than 
any other, sprang from a seed of yellow Siberian crab. 
The prevalence of the character of the female parent in the 
preceding cases, may possibly be suspected to have arisen 
from some error, or neglect of accuracy in making the expe- 
riments ; but I do not conceive that any such errors could 
have existed ; for the trees of each variety were trained to 
walls, where they blossomed much before any others of the 
same species, and the stamina were always carefully ex- 
tracted, whilst immature, from every blossom, which I in- 
tended to afford seeds. The remaining blossoms of the trees 
were also totally destroyed, and no other blossoms, except 
those from which the pollen was taken, were ever unfolded 
in the neighbourhood, in the season when the experiments 
were made ; and I have also invariably declined to draw any 
conclusion from the appearance of a plant, in which 1 could 
not certainly distinguish some portion of the features and cha- 
racter of the supposed male parent. 
It is perhaps also proper to state, that the predominance of 
the character of the female parent, could scarcely have arisen 
■from any defective action of the pollen ; for, except in cases 
where superfoetation took place, I have invariably found the 
effect of a very large, or a very small quantity of pollen, to 
be invariably the same, in its influence on the offspring ; and 
