a mongrel kind of quadruped, usually generated between an ass and a mare, and sometimes between a horse and a she ass; but the signification of the word is commonly extended to every kind of animal produced by a mixture of two different species. See MAMMALIA Index.

Mules, among gardeners, denote a sort of vegetable monsters produced by putting the farina succundans of one species of plant into the pistil or utricle of another.

The carnation and sweet-william being somewhat alike in their parts, particularly their flowers, the farina of the one will impregnate the other, and the seed so enlivened will produce a plant differing from either. An instance of this we first had in Mr Fairchild's garden at Hoxton; where a plant is seen neither sweet-william nor carnation, but resembling both equally; this was raised from the seed of a carnation that had been impregnated by the farina of the sweet-william. These couplings being not unlike those of the mare with the ass, which produce the mule, the same name is given them; and they are, like the others, incapable of multiplying their species.

This furnishes a hint for altering the property and taste of any fruit, by impregnating one tree with the farina of another of the same class; e.g., a codlin with a pear-main, which will occasion the codlin so impregnated to last a longer time than usual, and to be of a sharper taste.