so 



THE STRAWBERRY QUESTION. 



he places it in the order Sanguisorbece ; and 

 I cannot find, in any of Dr. Lindley's 

 writings to which I have access, an in- 

 stance where he refers a dioecious plant to 

 the order Rosacese. The quotation from 

 Dr. LiNDLEY, that "the old Hautbois Straw- 

 berry bears the male and female flowers on 

 different roots," does not, with all deference 

 to Dr. Valk, make him say that they are 

 dio3cious ; and the other quotation from a 

 letter to a correspondent in 1843, where he 

 says — "those flowers which have the sta- 

 mens large and the pistils small are males," 

 etc. etc., prove that Dr. Valk does not un- 

 derstand Dr. LiNDLEY aright. He never 

 intended to say that the male flower of a 

 monoecious or a dioecious plant had any 

 pistils, or the rudiments of any ; and Dr. 

 Valk virtually concedes this point ; for in 

 classifying the strawberries, he speaks of 

 many as diaicious from ahortion. 



I now come to speak of the use to be 

 made of this strict adherence to the mean- 

 ing of the terms used. If a plant is natu- 

 rally dioecious, no art of the horticulturist 

 can, will, or ever did make it to the con- 

 trary ; and therefore all the evidence pro- 

 duced by Mr. Tracy, Mr. Downing, Mr. 

 Allen and others, as to the changes in 

 Hovey's Seedling, falls to the ground. We 

 may transform the sexual organs of plants 

 into petals or leaves, from which they are 

 derived ; but Ave cannot transform one sex- 

 ual organ into another, or produce one 

 where it is naturally wanting. It would 

 be folly to attempt it, — the law of nature, 

 in regard to this, appears to be so immuta- 

 ble ; but we can by cultivation destroy in 

 part, or altogether, the different sexual 

 organs, and, per contra, when destroyed, 

 we can, by a different course of treatment, 

 restore them ; and this is not only true of 

 the sexual organs, but also of all other parts 

 of a plant. I think, therefore, that cultiva- 



tors should look more to their soils and cul- 

 tivation to find out why their strawberries 

 are unproductive ; and the facts quoted by 

 Dr. Valk go to prove this. Does not 

 the fact, that Mr. Tracy had grown both 

 staminate and pistillate Hovey's Seedling 

 prove that cultivation produces a great 

 change ? If the original seedling was per- 

 fect, then cultivation has made it imperfect ; 

 if pistillate, then cultivation has, in some 

 instances at least, brought the stamens from 

 an imperfect to a perfect state : if this is 

 denied, then comes the absurdity of having 

 two Hovey's Seedlings from one seed. Mr. 

 HovEY formerly disbelieved this sexual 

 organ theory, but lately changed his opi- 

 nion, for which he chose an unfortunate 

 time, — as I have heard it remarked that he 

 did not do so until the staminate Boston 

 Pine was ready to be sent out to fertilize 

 the pistillate Hovey's Seedling ! 



I am still decidedly of the opinion that 

 the impregnation of the ovaries, through 

 the pistils, has nothing to do with the de- 

 velopment of the receptacle, which, under 

 suitable cultivation, ivill perfect itself and 

 become an edible fruit without a7iy reference 

 to the seeds being perfect or irnperfect. 



My experience as a cultivator has long 

 ago taught me this. Often have I carefully 

 impregnated flowers in order to obtain seeds 

 of choice plants, but not had a perfect seed, 

 yet had otherwise perfect fruit. Who, as 

 a pomologist or nurseryman, has not seen 

 apples, pears, plums, peaches, and other 

 fruits seedless ? Are not the Sultana rai- 

 sins of commerce seedless ? Is not the 

 seedless Berberry, seed-bearing on some 

 soils ? Is not the seedless Lemon well 

 known to gardeners ? Is there any one, at 

 all conversant with vegetable physiology 

 or metamorphosis, but must be able to call 

 to mind very many instances of this kind. 

 Hybrid Geraniums lose their anthers, which 



