164 



THE SxliAWBERRY QUESTION REVIEWED. 



called perfect, is a regular, very abundant, 

 and excellent bearer, as much so as any 

 other scarlet. Why has not the same cause 

 produced the same effect upon this as upon 

 the other varieties of the same class ? That 

 over luxuriance should result in sterility, 

 might be quite probable ; but, according to 

 Downing, far from any exhaustion of the 

 productive powers taking place, " some va- 

 rieties bear finer and more abundant crops 

 than they did in their natural state ;"* the 

 vigor of the plants is unimpaired, and when 

 a bed is formed by a proper selection of 

 each, and cultivated in a rich soil, the 

 plants have a stronger tendency to over- 

 bear, and therefore a stronger tendency to 

 change from their condition, than when in 

 iheir normal state. 



In support of the opinion of a change in 

 the organization of this fruit, can any ana- 

 logous case be shown ? If it be an anoma- 

 ly, the proof to establish it should be clear 

 and positive. t 



* Mr. E. does not quote us quite fairly. In our article on 

 the Strawberry Question, p. 86, we have stated distinctly that 

 a variety having become pistillate, is so imperfect in one of its 

 productive powers — the stamens — that it requires the aid of 

 other plants to fertilize its blossoms. It is only when this de- 

 fect is supplied most fully, by an artificial system of fertilizing 

 the otherwise sterile blossoms, that it bears more abundantly 

 than in the natural state. — Ed. 



t There are many examples of this " change of organiza- 

 tion" in other plants. The blos-soms of the common Hydran- 

 gea, as we usually see them, are entirely sterile. There is not 

 a trace of stamens or pistils. But when this plant is growoi in 

 very poor and dry soil, the small and perfect normal blossoms 

 are produced, which have pistils and stamens in abundance. 

 Last season, a very dry one, a large plant in our garden bore 

 numerous clusters of perfect flowers. 



On the lawn near our own house, stands a large and fine spe- 

 cimen of Blagnolia conspicua. In China, its native country, 

 it bears seed abundantly. Here, though perfectly hardy and 

 flowering every year profusely, only two or three pistils in a 

 capsule are fertilized, and swell into seeds. The rest are abor- 

 tive. The Tulip Tree of our forests, for the first ten or fifteen 

 years after commencing to bloom, bears false or lioUow seeds. 

 In the older trees, the fructifying powers assume a more com- 

 plete form, and the seeds borne are all perfect. The cultiva- 

 tor of exotics is familiar \vith this change in plants introduced 

 here from warmer climates ; hence he fertilizes the blossoms 

 of Camellias, Cacti, and numberless other genera, when he 

 vrishes to raise large and perfect seeds. Now the PiTie Straw- 



Mr. Downing gives us the result of his 

 observations for the past two seasons, rela- 

 tive to his beds of the Ross' Phoenix and 

 Hovey's Seedlings. 



We would premise that he admits thai 

 the pistillate or staminateform once reached, 

 is permanent. He says that " last season 

 was the first that an isolated bed, in his 

 garden, of Hovey's Seedling came into 

 bearing. Being fully alive to the interest 

 which this subject has assumed, we exa- 

 mined this bed daily Avhen it was in blos- 

 som. As we have before staled, the blos- 

 soms were all perfect, large, well developed, 

 and bearing a due proportion of stamens 

 and pistils. With a careful search, we were 

 only able to discover two plants that bore 

 pistillate flowers. Every plant bore flowers 

 and fruit. When the same plants came in- 

 to bloom in May, we watched the opening 

 of the blossoms with a great deal of inte- 

 rest. When the bed was fully in bloom, 

 we discovered that more than one-third of 

 the plants bore only pistillate blossoms. Of 

 the remaining two-thirds, many bore perfect 

 blossoms, as they had done previously, 

 while a few also bore imperfect staminate 

 blossoms ;" and he predicts that next year, 

 the bed will have clianged almost entirely 

 to pistillate plants ; and he also states " the 

 same result occurred in a bed of Eoss' Phoe- 

 nix , and that in another part of the garden 



berries, (the class to wliich Hovey's Seedling belongs,) are 

 originally from a warmer climate than our own, and their 

 fructifying organs are liable to the same general laws of varia- 

 tion when introduced into a di/Terent climate. 



The Dutch florists would give our correspondent a familiar 

 proof of a change in the parts of plants. A grower of tulips 

 raises a large bed of seedlings. AVhen the bulbs first come 

 into bloom, they show only plain or self-colored blossoms. But 

 the florist does not despair; he calls these plain tulips his 

 breeders. He cultivates them patiently, and by and by, per- 

 haps in a year, perhaps ui several year.s, the plain and uni- 

 formly colored flower breaks out into a new sort, of the great- 

 est variety and brilliancy of color. This variety, having once 

 attained a new and distinct character of blossom, does not fall 

 back again into the normal form, but takes its place among 

 the select variegated sorts. — Ed. 



