368 THE SMALL FRUITS OF NEW YORK 



plant; American plants were hardy and vigorous but the fruits were small 

 and insipid. Why not cross varieties of the two species? 



Hovey first exhibited the strawberry which bears his name in 1838. 

 The variety came from one of six crosses made in his garden in Boston in 

 1834, the pollen and pistillate parents being Keens Seedling, Mulberry, 

 Melon and Methven Scarlet, of which the first two were Pines, the third 

 probably a Pine, and the last certainly a native Virginiana. The parents 

 were chosen by Hovey with the hope that he might get the large, richly 

 flavored fruit of the Pines on the better plant of the native sort. The seed- 

 lings obtained from these crosses gave two varieties, Hovey and Boston 

 Pine. Unfortunately the labels were lost in some division of his work 

 so that Hovey was never certain what the parents of these varieties 

 were. 



Hovey was the sensation of its times in pomology. Its large, handsome, 

 delectable berries delighted all lovers of fruit. The country was then enthu- 

 siastically supporting all institutions having to do with horticulture, — 

 magazines, papers, societies, fairs, exhibitions, and nurseries, — and through 

 these agencies the Hovey was soon distributed to strawberry growers in 

 all parts of North America, and everywhere it stimulated interest in this 

 fruit with the result that the strawberry became a major pomological 

 product before the middle of the century. 



The Hovey, however, soon showed several weaknesses, but its place 

 was taken at once by newer and still better varieties which now began to 

 appear in a continuous pageant which has come down, with ever-increasing 

 numbers, to the present time. It was found that the Hovey succeeded 

 only under the highest culture, made few plants, and that, since it was 

 pistillate, pollen-bearing varieties must be planted with it to secure a 

 sufficiently productive crop, a fact which brought to a fuller and eventually 

 a final discussion of sex in strawberries, the vagaries of which had long been 

 a troublesome problem to American strawberry growers. 



It had been known in Europe since 1760 that there was a separation of 

 sexes in some strawberries and application was made of the knowledge 

 in France and England. Few of the Pine strawberries, however, as grown 

 in England at least, needed cross-pollination to set fruit, and when the 

 Hovey was introduced, most of the American varieties were staminate so 

 that there was a difference of opinion in English-speaking coimtries as to 

 whether separation of sex was a cause of unproductiveness. The pistillate 

 Hovey started anew the study of sex in this fruit, brought forth new facts. 



