399 
male and female 'Parents on their Offspring. 
however, stated, that many plants produced well organised 
seeds, and even seeds which vegetated perfectly, under cir- 
cumstances in which it is not easy to conceive how the. pollen 
of the male plant or flower could have been present. But the 
Italian naturalist appears to have blundered most egregiously 
in his experiment ; or (which I conceive to be more probable) 
he became the dupe of the refined malice of4iis countrymen ; 
for, I repeated his experiments under very favourable circum- 
stances, and with the closest attention, but I failed to obtain a 
single seed. The gourd alone produced apparently perfect 
fruit, and the seed-coats acquired their natural size and form ; 
and in this respect the growth of its seeds appeared to be, like 
that of eggs, wholly independent of the influence of the male. 
But the seed-coats of the gourd were perfectly empty, and I 
could not discover, at any period of their growth, the slightest 
vestige either of cotyledons, or plumule, nor of any thing 
that appeared to correspond with internal organisation of a 
seed of the same plant, under different circumstances. Spal- 
lanzani has not, I believe, mentioned the species of gourd 
upon which he made his experiments : the common, or orange 
gourd of our gardens, was the subject of mine. 
In comparing the mode of the formation and growth of 
eggs with the observations I had previously made on the 
growth of seeds, I have been favoured with the very able as- 
sistance of Mr. Carlisle, for which I have on this, as on many 
other occasions, to acknowledge much obligation. 
I am, my Dear Sir, 
with great respect, sincerely yours, 
THOMAS AND. KNIGHT. 
3 F 2 
Downton, May 20, 1809. 
