34 
THOMAS ANDREW KNIGHT. 
it was to the writing of this distinguished naturalist, he owed the impression of the great importance 
of hybridization. Indeed although other observers long before him had pointed out the fact, until 
Linnaeus had set forth and insisted on the distinction of sexes in plants, hybridization could only be 
mere guess-work ; and as it had therefore no rational ground to rest on, there was but little 
inducement to attempt it. Mr. Knight was not certainly the originator of the practice, but he 
was the first fully to realize its practical utility so far as fruit trees are concerned ; and he followed 
it out with so much energy and perseverance, as to make the subject his own. 
Mr. Knight had already many hundred seedlings, at various periods of growth, in his beds ; 
and in the early period of his friendship with Sir Joseph Banks, he must evidently have dwelt in 
one of his letters, with true Virgilian Spirit, upon the length of time his seedling fruit trees required 
to arrive at maturity : 
“ Jam quae seminibus jactis se sustulit arbos, 
Tarda venit, seris factura nepotibus umbram.” 
Georgic II 57-8. 
“ But slowly comes the tree which thou hast sown, 
A canopy for grandsons of thine own. ” 
Blakemore. 
for Sir Joseph writes in answer (1798) “Your experiments on apples and grapes must be very 
tedious, but surely the success of those on annual plants, will induce you to persevere.” 
Mr. Knight’s after experience told him that apple-tree seedlings took from five to twelve 
years to come into bearing; whilst pear-tree seedlings required still longer time, and would not 
ear fruit until they were from twelve to eighteen years old. 
Mr. Knight’s chief experiments in crossing apple trees were made from the Golden Pippin, 
Golden Harvey, Orange Pippin, and Siberian Crab —and the results of their hybridization are 
shewn in the following table:— 
From the Pips 
or Seeds of the 
Fertilized by 
Pollen from the 
He obtained the 
Orange Pippin 
Golden Pippin 
Grange Apple ... 1802 
Downton Pippin ... 1804 
Red Ingestrie ... 1800 
Yellow Ingestrie ... 1800 
Golden Harvey 
Golden Pippin 
Breinton Seedling 1801 
Golden Pippin 
Golden Harvey 
Bringewood Pippin 1800 
Wormesley Pippin 1811 
Siberian Crab 
Orange Pippin 
Yellow Siberian ... 1805 
Siberian Pippin ... 1806 
Foxley Apple ... 1808 
Siberian Crab 
Golden Harvey 
Siberian Harvey ... 1807 
Yellow Siberian Crab 
Golden Harvey 
Siberian Bittersweet 
The great tendency to variety in seedlings is well shewn by the fact, that those very 
