496 



REMARKS ON STRAWBERRIES. 



cultivating any one strawberry near ano- 

 ther to ensure fertility. Such was Mr. Ho- 

 vey's opinion in 1843. 



In February, 1844, Mr. Huntsman's views 

 were published in Hovey's Magazine. This 

 gentleman had observed the plant closely, 

 and regarded it as anomalous in its dioe- 

 cious character. Some varieties were per- 

 fect in both male and female organs ; some 

 perfect in male organs only, and some pos- 

 sessed, complete, only the rudiments of the 

 fruit. The first are good bearers, though 

 the fruit is small ; the second are not wor- 

 thy general cultivation ; and the third are 

 best of all, on account of great productive- 

 ness. Mr. Huntsman's conclusions are, that 

 one or more varieties of pistillate plants 

 will not fruit unless impregnated by sta- 

 viiriate plants, while others under favor- 

 able circumstances will. What the favor- 

 able circumstances are, he does not in- 

 form us. 



Without any very material difference, 

 Messrs. Bayne and Coit hold the same 

 opinions, as also Mr. James. See Hovey's 

 Magazine, November, 1843, and March, 

 1844. To the same effect is the testimony 

 of Mr. Garber, in August, 1844, and Mr. 

 Jackson, in November. All of them assent 

 to the male ^w A. female theory; they have 

 practically demonstrated it ; and the latter 

 gentleman does not consider Hovey's Seed- 

 ling worth groivi7ig without a few male 

 plants to fertilize it. 



In 1846, Mr. Hovey's views were some- 

 what modified from his expressed senti- 

 ments in 1843. He had cultivated the 

 strawberry for twenty years, yet had not, 

 until now, discovered that some sorts had a 

 tendency to barrenness tvhe?i growing away 

 from other kinds, and that these should be 

 fertilized by staminate (male) plants. This 

 course would give a certain crop, regardless 

 of " soil, climate, cultivation, injudicious 



selection of plants, or a normal defect in the 

 organization of the flowers resulting in a 

 deficiency of pollen." Three years before 

 this, there was not the least necessity to 

 grow any one strawberry near another to 

 ensure fertility ; now — there was a neces- 

 sity for so doing. Experience had taught 

 Mr. HovEY in 1843, that there was no ne- 

 cessity for making any distinction of sexual 

 character when forming new buds. Expe- 

 rience taught him, in 1846, that the one 

 essential thing to produce fruit on his own 

 seedling, was the planting of perfect flow- 

 ering kinds in near proximity. 



So much for opinions, and nothing would 

 be easier than to multiply them ; but to 

 what good end shall they be recorded ? con- 

 flicting, as they do, with /ac/5 known long 

 since to professed botanists. Not a dioe- 

 cious plant in the whole order — Eosaceoe ? 

 This is the opinion of Senex, in the Horti- 

 culturist, and he has termed it sheer non 

 sense to say the contrary. But Don, Dr. 

 LiNDLEY, and a host of others, record the 

 fact, that " the old Hautbois strawberry 

 bears the male and female flowers on differ- 

 ent roots.'''' Does not this make it dioecious 

 in a strict sense ? If not, will some one, 

 well learned in botanical science, tell us 

 what the word dioscious means? It may 

 be altogether " silly twattle" to call things 

 by their right names, and the very perfec- 

 tion of learning to be " all things by turns, 

 and nothing long ;" but that there are male 

 and female strawberry plants, is as certain 

 as that two and two make four. In 1843, 

 a correspondent wrote to Dr. Lindley a let- 

 ter of inquiry on this very subject. The 

 Dr. thus replied: — "Those flowers which 

 have the stamens large, and the pistils 

 small, are males ; when the pistil is large 

 and prominent, and the stamens dwarfish, 

 they are females ; when the two are equally 

 balanced, they are hermaphrodite." Such 



