REMARKS ON STRAWBERRIES. 



495 



Strongly expressed, very recenthj adopted ; 

 for upon referring to page 6 of a Catalogue 

 for 1944, '45, we read as follows. — " The 

 silly tioattle about male and female (straw- 

 berry) plants is calculated to grossly deceive 

 the 'public, loho cannot do worse than adopt 

 any course i7i accordatice with the si/ggestions 

 arising from such ignorance^ These two 

 opinions, published by the same individual 

 in the same year, are as contradictory as 

 they well can be ; nor can the least weight 

 be attached to such puerile vacillations, 

 though in 1847 the writer goes back to the 

 correct opinion of his father, that it is indis- 

 pensably necessary to accompany the pistil- 

 late varieties with about one-tenth of some 

 staminate, to render them invariably pro- 

 ductive. " This course was recommended 

 in our (no, not our, the late Wm. Prince's) 

 Treatise onHorticulture, published inl82S." 

 It must cause the reader to smile, when put- 

 ting such opinions in contrast. They form 

 the climax of an extremely treacherous me- 

 mory. Quene Deus vult perdere, 4*c. 



Conflicting opinions have been expressed 

 in the Boston "Magazine of Horticulture" 

 by correspondents ; and the editor thereof 

 has undoubtedly changed his mind, with 

 respect to the character of his (Hovey's) 

 Seedling. In 1838, a communication ap- 

 peared in the May number of the Magazine 

 of Horticulture, wherein it is stated that 

 there are separate fertile and barren plants ; 

 that in some plants the pistils are so few as 

 to be scarcely visible, and in others no sta- 

 mens are to be seen ; and, that when the 

 plants bear staminate flowers only, they are 

 of course barren ; when pistillate only, they 

 are prolific. The recommendation was ad- 

 ded, that for an abundant yield of fruit, one 

 plant in eight or ten should be staminate, 

 for the purpose of impregnating the pistil- 

 late or fertile ones ; for if the latter only 

 were grown, they would not bear at all. 



From such practical directions the inference 

 is obvious, that the writer recognized the 

 existence of separate male and female blos- 

 soms ; and also, that the one staminate 

 plant should be of the same variety as the 

 eight or ten pistillates ; thereby conceding 

 that there may be both staminate, {male,) 

 and pistillate, (female,) plants of the same 

 variety. That so?ne varieties of the straw- 

 berry are of this character, there can be no 

 doubt, although a writer in the Horticultu- 

 rist for October, 1847, (Senex,) asserts that 

 there is not a dioecious plant in the whole 

 order. He terms the doctrine " sheer non- 

 sense," and says that the word dioecious 

 should be used, in its strict sense ; it would 

 then mean, that Hovey's Seedling bore fe- 

 male (pistillate) flowers on one plant, and 

 male (staminate) on another plant, — "an 

 evident absurdity." Absurd and nonsensi- 

 cal as he asserts it to be, however, Mr. 

 Tracy of Windsor, Vt., states (Horticultu- 

 rist for August, 1847,) that he has grown 

 Hovey's Seedling "decidedly staminate, 

 and as decidedly pistillate." He was sur- 

 prised, but there was "no mistake about 

 the facts." To the same effect is the testi- 

 mony of Mr. Allen of Winchester, Va., in 

 Hovey's Magazine for August, 1843. 



In Nov., 1843, Mr. Hovey thus expressed 

 himself: — " We believe it is now the gene- 

 rally received opinion of all intelligent cul- 

 tivators, that there is no necessity of mak- 

 ing any distinction in regard to the sexual 

 character of the plants when forming new 

 beds. The idea of male and female flow- 

 ers, first originated, we believe, by Mr. 

 Longworth, of Ohio, is now considered as 

 exploded ; at least, so far as we have been 

 able to learn, since the subject was agita- 

 ted in our pages of last season, (1842,) as 

 well as fiom our own experience." Cultiva- 

 tion alone, says he, creates sterile or fertile 

 plants ; nor is there the least necessity of 



