:Qi^^^ 



SEXUAL CHARACTER OF THE STRAWBERRY. 8G5 



rule is reversed. Does tliis not seem to indicate that the difference is caused by 

 climatic influences, whether or not the above reflections are sufficient to form the 

 hypothesis that the cause is accidental, not constitutional, and consequently that cir- 

 cumstances which may oppose these accidents may " render the distinction between 

 pistillates and staminates worthless, cultivation producing either one or the other ?" 



By using this expression in my paper read before the Horticultural Society of 

 Pennsylvania, I have shocked the preconceived notions of many. I cannot help it — 

 1 repeat it ; for not only is it consistent with physiological laws, as I have just shown, 

 but also borne out by experience and observation. In the paper alluded to I have 

 shown that runners taken from a pistillate plant, differed from their parent seven to 

 five ; and also that in runners taken from the same bed produced one hundred plants 

 which under one state of circumstances became all 2)istillates, and another hundred, 

 under different circumstances, became nearly all i^erfect ! I exhibited plants of 

 Hovei/s Seedling having hermaphrodite and pistillate flowers, and hath on the same 

 plant. But this does not seem to be enough to convince that, as a distinction, the 

 classes are worthless. Well, sir, I have here a level terrace formed on the fall of a 

 slope. One end of this terrace rising from the level of the ground ; the other being 

 about ten feet above. On this terrace there is a strawberry bed of what I consider to 

 be Burr''s Pine, although planted two j'ears ago for Hovey''s Seedling. But the name 

 is of no consequence for the fact I wish to mention. They are grown in rows ; six or 

 eight of the rows, on the elevated end, were composed of piistillute plants when they 

 first came into flower — the remainder were perfect. Before they ceased flowering, the 

 whole, with the exception of one solitary plant, became perfect. A gentleman who 

 looked ov^er this bed when they first opened, and a firm believer in the constitutional 

 distinctness of sexual characters, came to the conclusion that the pistillate flowering 

 plants "must be some other kind" — supposing them at that time to be Hovey's. 

 This has been the only^ argument that I have met with on any occasion, where I have 

 pointed out hermaphrodite flowering plants among pistillate ones — or the contrary, 

 that " some other kind ninst have got in by accident." I was at a loss, for a while, 

 how to convince others who had thus decided — till, one day, pointing out to a gan- 

 tleman 2)crfect floivcring ])][i\\tii among the so-called ^;/s//7/oYe J/c^lvoy's ^.r/?'a i?C(Z, 

 and being met with the same objection, " that an erroneous kind had got among them," 

 I was led to a close examination of each individual plant ; coming direct from Mr. 

 LoxGwoRTii I could not doubt their correctness. The result was, that the hermaphro- 

 dite flowering trusses were found to proceed from the same individual roots as the 

 pistillate ones. I sent you a root for verification, which I presume you received.* 



I have been elaborate in explaining what I do believe in, because I do not wish 

 to be confounded with what I don^t. I do not teach that it is worthless to inquire 

 whether you have pistillate or staminate plants. I have known to my vexation what 

 it is to have a whole set of strawberries become pistillate, and should have under- 

 gone another trial but for a fortunate present of a staminate CuthilVs Black Prince 



Mr. BuiST, in flower, froni which I fertilized the whole. "What I wish is, to ^ 



* "We did not.— Ed. >A, 



