'v^-i5^: 



i 



ggl SEXUAL CHAUACTER OF THE BTRAWBKUUT. 



mation as to the proclucts and ]>opulation of every county, for the use of schools and 

 private jiersons. Such an example will not be lost on other States. New York will 

 in this bo the pioneer, as she has so often been in other things, and will eonij)lete 

 what she began in her scientific explorations. 



SEXUAL CIIAKACTER OF THE STRAWI5ERRY. 



RY THOMAS MEEIIAN, GARDENER TO CALEB COPE, nilLAUELl'HIA. 



So MUCH has been said and written on this subject, that there seems to be room left 

 for very little more. I have long felt with your illustrious predecessor, that the pre- 

 vailing- notions about the sexes of strawberries have become, with some, a hohhy, 

 which, "like most hobbies, has galloped considerably beyond the boundaries of sober 



truth." (Fruits of America, x>- 523.) I would like to offer a few words on the subject. 



A short time ago the Alice Maud strawberry was under discussion in the Farm 

 Journal. Some fancied their's incorrectly named. They were advised to wait and 

 examine its sexual character, before judging of its authenticity. I bad been for a 

 lono- time experimenting on the sexes of strawberries, and had come to the conclusion 

 that there is no constitutional diff'erence between a pistillate and hermaphrodite 

 strawberry plant.* A pistillate flower has rudimentary stamens. Unfavorable cir- 

 cumstances prevented their development ; had these been fovorable, the flower would 

 have been perfect. These circumstances often act on the original plant of any given 

 variety, even while the germ lies in the ovary of its parent, and thus give it a tendency 

 to vary with the circumstances of cultivation or accident. This difference between a 

 constitutional and an accidental tendency will be better understood by looking into a 

 double fioioer. Take the Chinese Primrose : Ave may put a plant of a single variety 

 into the richest soil, and do our best to excite luxuriance, but that plant will never 

 produce a double flower ; that is contrary to its constitutional character. But the 

 double variety requires only to be neglected — suff'ered to become starved and stunted, 

 and the accident which at its origin gave the stamens a tendency to become petals, is 

 successfully opposed, and the flowers return to their perfect normal state. This illus- 

 tration helps us considerably in getting to the bottom of the strawberry question ; 

 because we know that as poor treatment induced the petaloid stamens to return to 

 their natural condition, luxurious circumstances must have been the accident that 

 originated the tendency to depart from it. For, though we have not yet learned 

 what precise cause first induced the strawberry to depart from its hermaphrodite state, 

 we have the analogy of other plants for supposing it to be accidental. This supposition 

 is more than strengthened by the fact that in England among seedling strawberries 

 hermaphrodites are the rule,\ pistillates the exception ; while in this country the 



To avoid misconception it would be well to obsen'c that only two distinctions are recognized in this 

 the term siaii\huit-e is used it is understood as hermaphrodiU. 

 England no pistillate seedling would bo saved. — Ed. 



