Chap. X. STRAWBERRIES. 375 



may be accounted for by the seed being of no value, and conse- 

 quently not having been subjected to selection. The strawberry 

 is properly three-leaved, but in 1761 Duchesne raised a single- 

 leaved variety of the European wood-strawberry, which Linnaeus 

 doubtfully raised to the rank of a species. Seedlings of this 

 variety, like those of most varieties not fixed by long-continued 

 selection, often revert to the ordinary form, or present intermediate 

 states. 110 A variety raised by Mr. Myatt, 111 apparently belonging 

 to one of the American forms presents a variation of an opposite 

 nature, for it has five leaves ; Godron and Lambertye also mention 

 a five-leaved variety of F. collina. 



The Eed Bush Alpine strawberry (one of the F. vesca section) 

 does not produce stolons or runners, and this remarkable deviation 

 of structure is reproduced truly by seed. Another sub-variety, 

 the White Bush Alpine, is similarly characterised, but when pro- 

 pagated by seed it often degenerates and produces plants with 

 runners. 112 A strawberry of the American Pine section is also said 

 to make but few runners. 113 



Much has been written on the sexes of strawberries ; the true 

 Hautbois properly bears the male and female organs on separate 

 plants, 114 and was consequently named by Duchesne dioica ; but 

 it frequently produces hermaphrodites; and Lindley, 115 by pro- 

 pagating such plants by runners, at the same time destroying 

 the males, soon raised a self-prolific stock. The other species 

 often showed a tendency towards an imperfect separation of the 

 sexes, as I have noticed with plants forced in a hot : house. Several 

 English varieties, which in this country are free from any such 

 tendency, when cultivated in rich soils under the climate of North 

 America 116 commonly produce plants with separate sexes. Thus 

 a whole acre of Keen's Seedlings in the United States has been 

 observed to be almost sterile from the absence of male flowers ; 

 but the more general rule is, that the male plants overrun the 

 females. Some members of the Cincinnati Horticultural Society, 

 especially appointed to investigate this subject, report that " few 

 varieties have the flowers perfect in both sexual organs," &c. The 

 most successful cultivators in Ohio plant for every seven rows 

 of " pistillata," or female plants, one row of hermaphrodites, which 

 afford pollen for both kinds; but the hermaphrodites, owing to 

 their expenditure in the production of pollen, bear less fruit than 

 the female plants. 



The varieties differ in constitution. Some of our l>est English 



110 Godron, 'De 1'Espece,' torn. i. p. vol. vi. p. 210. 



161. 115 'Gardener's Chron.,' 1847, p. 



111 'Gardener's Chron.,' 1851, p. 539. 



440. U6 For the several statements with 



112 F. Gloede in ' Gardener's Chron.,' respect to the American strawberries, 

 1862, p. 1053. see Downing, 'Fruits,' p. 524; ' Gar- 



113 Downing's ' Fruits,' p. 532. dener's Chronicle,' 1843, p. 188 ; 1847, 



114 Barnet, in ' Hort. Transact.,' p. 539; 1861, p. 717. 



