THE STRAWBERRY QUESTION REVIEWED. 



161 



there is no difference in the size and ap- 

 pearance of the blossom, which they now 

 admit to exist' with us." 



This may be the opinion of some of the 

 European gardeners, but certainly not of all. 

 Some of them, to our knowledge are better 

 informed. 



The difference between pistillate and sta- 

 minate plants is as well understood in Eu- 

 rope as here, and the method of selecting 

 a due proportion of the two as much prac- 

 ticed upon.* It was discovered by Keene, 

 as Mr. LoNGWORTH mentions, in 1809, and 

 the subject Avas inquired into by the Horti- 

 cultural Society of London in 1817. They 

 addressed a letter to Keene, and received 

 an answer communicating the fact. Phil- 

 lips, shortly after, published his " Pomarium 

 Britannicum." He speaks of Keene's me- 

 thod of cultivating the Strawberry, and 

 confirms the necessity of adopting it. 



Mr. Downing contends for the principle 

 that most of our strawberries, in their nor- 

 mal or original state, bear perfect flowers, 

 and [" the large growing strawberries," 

 Ed.] having a tendency to overbear in rich 

 soil, run out into pistillate and staminate 

 forms. We should judge that when he 

 wrote his treatise upon fruits, he based his 

 opinion upon that of Lindley ; for, though 

 he states that where a bed of plants is 

 barren from a deficiency of stamens, it will 

 become productive, if male plants are set 

 " along side," or " near by," of which Lind- 

 ley does not speak ; yet he does not recom- 

 mend this method, but says, "the true course 

 is, not to waste the ground by putting out 

 barren plants, but carefully to select, where 



* We think our correspondent is in error here. We never 

 knew an English gardener who did not look upon tha whole 

 matter as a chimera in practice ; and a pretty large and con- 

 stant correspondence abroad, and a close acquaintance with 

 the gardening literature of Europe, enables us to say that it is 

 no where generally resorted to in practice on the continent. 

 The theory of the matter is acknowledged, but Uie practice of 

 jt is very rare. — Eo- 



21 



there is a tendency to sterility, only runners 

 from the most fruitful perfect plants," and 

 refers for authority to Lindley, who, he 

 says, " covers the whole matter."* Lind- 

 ley, when speaking of the distinction be- 

 tween sterile and productive blossoms, re- 

 fers to the Hautbois class of strawberries. 

 From the trial he made, both by cultivating 

 plants obtained of others, and by raising 

 plants from the seed, he condemned the 

 practice of selecting any sterile plants. " In 

 the cultivation of Hautbois strawberries, it 

 will be recommended that the plants called 

 males should be wholly rooted up as use- 

 less." {Lindlei/s Guide to theOrchard,p.313.) 



It may be possible that the varieties 

 cultivated by him have perfect blossoms, 

 but it seems more probable from what in- 

 formation we can gather with regard to 

 this class, that he only destroyed the abso- 

 lutely sterile plants, leaving other staminate 

 plants with the female organs so far deve- 

 loped as generally to be productive, with- 

 out which, however, the pistillate plants 

 would have been wholly unproductive. He, 

 however, speaks of no change taking place 

 in the blossoms of the plants from rich cul- 

 tivation or otherwise. We should presume 

 that if such change had taken place, either 

 with this variety or any other which he (xnl 

 tivated, " a sound practical gardener,'* aj 

 he was, would have noticed it. 



Mr. Downing, in his treatise, states that 

 the Prolific Hautbois always bear perfect 

 flowers. In his magazine, he omits [acci- 

 dentally, Ed.] to class it among his enume- 

 ration of those varieties having this charac- 

 ter. 



* Our readers will understand tliat our correspondent refers 

 to our opinion as expressed in our work on Fruit Trees. It 

 should be remembered at the same time, however, what our 

 correspondent seems strangely to have overlooked, that our 

 article on " the Strawberry Question," in the August number 

 of the Horticulturist, was written expressly to state our own 

 change qf opinion regju'ding tlie practical value of the fertiliz- 

 ing plan. Horticulture is not yet a perfected but a progressive 

 science, and we are in favor of progress. — Ed. 



