SEPTEMBER. 273 



in the constellation " New Orleans." It was considered a genuine 

 planet of the first magnitude, and named "Crescent Seedling Perpetual," 

 from its connection with that city of the moon. Patiently we waited 

 its appearance in our own grounds, and made every preparation to 

 observe the distinguished stranger in his best aspects when he appeared ; 

 but, behold ! " he came, we saw, and he vanished." The solidity of 

 his planetship was but a myth, — a mere cometary nebulosity, — and he 

 was as quick gathered to his fathers as his ancestors had been before 

 him. Still the race continues to appear, — some with more brilliancy 

 than others, — sometimes a mere second crop in some cottager's garden ; 

 at others a " Delices d'Automne." 



Now, are these " celestial visitors" to be considered something like 

 meteoric forms, — called into existence for the purpose of mere " blaze," 

 perfect when they have once made a "dazzling show" in "horticul- 

 tural space," then to burst and disappear? or are they the nuclei of 

 " new wcrlds," like all new beginners, imperfect and incomplete, — fore- 

 shadowing to us star-gazers how glorious they will be when their 

 destiny is complete ? Will " Perpetual Strawberries" ever be more 

 than a "wandering" idea, and become a real " planetary," substantial 

 fact? 



Why should it not ? The improvements in many of our fruits and 

 vegetables have become so extensive, that we can scarcely discern the 

 sources of their origin, and the early history of many of them is nearly 

 lost in obscurity. 



Even the Strawberry itself is scarcely able to produce a clean record 

 to its title as a British fruit. The first knowledge we have of its culti- 

 vation in history is that, about the year 1600, an English gardener 

 saw a plant growing in a poor woman's garden in the south of England, 

 the fruit little larger than peas, said to have been found in the woods by 

 the good lady's daughter ; but it is well known that they were culti- 

 vated by those good friends of horticulture in those days, the monks, in 

 the monastic gardens, long before that time, and they may as likely 

 have escaped from them, and become wild and deteriorated, as to have 

 been truly indigenous to the wood where the young lady found it. 



But to return to perpetual Strawberries. We have early Strawberries, 

 and succession Strawberries, and late Strawberries. We have them in 

 May, and if the reports of a new Californian Strawberry are not fabulous, 

 we have them in September. Now, why, by a judicious system of 

 crossing, may we not have a kind which will unite all the seasons in 

 one individual ? We all know how Mr. Knight's experiments in hybri- 

 dising the kinds already supposed to be of European origin with kinds 

 of American birth gave to the horticultural world a race of fruit, from 

 which all we know the most prizes have been obtained. What may not 

 yet be done by similar experiments ? And this is our great want — 

 experiment and experimenters, — men like Knight and others, with the 

 leisure and the taste to patiently investigate, and test, and originate 

 new ideas and practices. It is the great want of our age ; affording a 

 fine chance for any lover of his fellows to distinguish and immortalise 

 himself. 



Depend upon it, we are to have perpetual Strawberries ; and the 



VOL. XII., NO. CXLI. T 



