395 
male and female Parents on their Offspring. 
in the greater part of the experiments, from which I have 
drawn the preceding conclusions, more than ten times as 
much pollen was deposited on the stigmata, as could have 
been deposited in unmutilated blossoms by the ordinary means 
employed by nature. 
In all attempts to discriminate the different influence of the 
male and female parent on the offspring of animals many dif- 
ficulties present themselves, owing to the intermixtures which 
have been made of the different breeds of domesticated ani- 
mals of every species, and the consequent absence of all here- 
ditary permanency in the character of each variety. For under 
these circumstances, the offspring will be very frequently 
found to shew little resemblance either to its male or female 
parent, either in form, or stature, or colour. It will therefore 
be necessary, before I enter on the subject of viviparous ani- 
mals, to observe that when I apply the terms large and small 
to the male or female parent, I extend the meaning of those 
terms to the parentage, from which the male and female de- 
scend, and not to the size of the individual only, which be- 
comes the immediate parent of the offspring. 
Mr. Cline has observed, in a communication to the Board 
of Agriculture, that if the male and female parent differ con- 
siderably in size, the dimensions of the foetus, at the birth, 
will be regulated much more by the size of the female than 
of the male parent; and, if the meaning of the terms large 
and small be extended to the varieties, as well as to the indi- 
viduals, his remark is perfectly just. But experience compels 
me wholly to reject the inference that he has drawn respect- 
ing the advantages of propagating from large, in preference 
to small females. 
