EUROPEAN STRAWBERRIES. 



latest that the flower produces, and which is to hecome the fruit, is a mere tuft of abor 

 tions, incapable of quickening, and shrivelling into pitch-black threads as soon as it is fully 

 in contact with the air." How true is every word of this! I have, myself, on many oc- 

 casions, seen strawberries of the most productive kinds, grown in pots, and well estab- 

 lished, on being introduced too suddenly into heat early in spring, say from the middle 

 of January to the end of Februar}^ become so sterile, that on a couple of hundred of pots 

 there could not have been gathered a dozen of strawberries; the reader must bear in mind 

 that at that period of the year in England, there is very little sun-light, and when this is 

 added to heat, with proportionate moisture, and little air, the cultivator has a magnificent 

 crop of sterile strawberry blooms ! Let plants of the same growth and variety be put into 

 the forcing house from the beginning to the end of March, keep them near the glass, with 

 a low temperature to start with, and abundance of air — as the spring is now advancing, 

 even in that dull atmosphere, there is a little more sun-light — a large crop of fine fruit will 

 be the reward of such judicious treatment. Again, the same variety grown in the open 

 air in that country, will produce a splendid crop. This experience, however, only bears 

 out the sensible and philosophic remarks of Dr. Lindley, and which, to my mind, is con- 

 clusive as to the cause of sterility in strawberries — namely, climate. Strawberries in Eng- 

 land, we will suppose, are in the fall, strong and well established, having well formed and 

 well ripened crowns; winter sets in, but it is mild in comparison with its American coun- 

 terpart; no protection is required by the plants, their foliage is scarcely injured; they re- 

 main generally torpid until about the middle of February; the days are beginning to 

 lengthen, and occasionally there is a little sun; the plant, obedient to the call of nature, 

 moves a trifle, though but a trifle, up to the beginning of March; all through March the 

 same proceeds slowly ; April generally comes in warmer, with refreshing showers, and 

 -from the tliird week in this month, until about the end of the first week in May, may be 

 considered their blooming season. May is generally a fine month, but not so warm as an 

 American one, the thermometer ranging from 50° to 60'' in the shade by day, and sinking 

 at night as low as 40° to 45^; of course, I now speak generally. I have known sharp 

 white frosts as late as the 13th and 14th of the month, and proportionably cold by day — 

 by the end of May the. early varieties will be ripening. By taking a retrospective glance, 

 it will be seen that in England their season of growth is long, moderately cool, though 

 never very cold at night — moderately warm by day, the strawberries having time to form 

 the various parts of fructification so well described by Dr. Lindlet. 



Turning to the American seasons, what shall we find? A long, severe winter, during 

 which time our strawberries are reposing beneath a covering of litter and snow — so far so 

 well; spring sets in suddenly warm, and, it may be, dry, and strawberries which were 

 so dormant but a short time before, are quickly in foliage and flower, producing stami- 

 nates in abundance, and caused by what? the sudden transition from cold to heat, as in 

 the instance of the forced strawberry plants, and were it not for the bright light and sun, 

 the crop would be as scanty as in an Engli.sh forcing-house, in Dr. Lindlet 's words — " the 

 oldest parts, namely the calyx and corolla, simple in their structure and already ad- 

 vanced in their formation, suffer no injury." "The stamens, having less time to form, 

 acquire perhaps their yellow color, but are powerless for their allotted ofiice; while the 

 pistil, the most complicated of all the parts, that which demands the largest period for its 

 perfect formation, but which is the latest that the flower produces, and which is to be- 

 come the fruit, is a mere tuft of abortions, incapable of quickening, and shrivelling into 

 pitch-black threads as soon as it is fully in contact with the air." Has not soil, local 

 or season much to do with the character which a strawberry assumes? I thinli 



