60 



DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



spirit woukl enable the society to become in reality 

 an association for the acquisition and diffusion of 

 horticultural knowledge. I remain, very respect- 

 fully, your obedient servant. William Prichard. 

 Nashville, May 30, 1848. 



A Word for Botanists on the "Great 

 Strawbkrry QuESTiOM. — This subjeot is getting 

 to be nearly as prulific in disputes as the plants 

 themselves are in berries — so that, ultimately, they 

 will become as "plenty as blackberries." In the 

 elaborate report of the Cincinnati Horticultural 

 Society, on the strawberry, lately published, poor 

 systematic botanists come in for a full share of re- 

 proach on this fruitful subject. In their 4th pos- 

 tulate, they say : " That nearly all botanists, (and 

 among them our most enlightened modern writers,) 

 have overlooked the important error of Linnceus, 

 and have simply copied after him, without verifying 

 for themselves," &c. Now this unmerited taunt is 

 severe, because "enlightened botanists" do not claim 

 entire exemption from liability to error. Admitting 

 the charge of error and ignorance, on the part of 

 the great LinnsEus and enlightened botanists, to be 

 true, is the severity of the taunt deserved, when 

 so much of the progress of Horticulture and Flori- 

 culture, is due to the untiring zeal and unrequited 

 industry of the systematic botanist? All the pay 

 that the enlightened botanist expects, for the labo- 

 rious explorations of the wide fields of truth, in his 

 favorite branch of investigation, is the conscious- 

 ness of adding his mite to the general stock of sci- 

 ence, and the promotion of the cause of truth. 

 That he may commit errors, or that his investiga- 

 tions may be unsatisfactory, for want of opportu- 

 nities of carrying them on successful!)^, is conceding 

 to them no more than is incident to the fallibility of 

 all human speculations. Unfortunately for the 

 theory, ("for it is nothing but a theory,) of these 

 visionary men, LiNNiEUs ai d his humble followers 

 are not mistaken, nor in error, with regard to this 

 peculiarity of the plant in question. It is not a 

 dicBcious plant in a state of nature, (the only ques- 

 tion upon which the botanist is called upon to de- 

 cide,) and, so far as my observations extend, it is 

 not so with the cultivated varieties. Metamorphoses 

 of vegetables, from peculiar habits and cultivation, 

 take place so readily, that botanists have long since 

 ceased to depend on cultivated specimens as types 

 for description, as being too uncertain and variable 

 for scientilic purposes. Prof. Gray, who is the 

 best authority on vegetable organography in this 

 country, holds the following language on this sub- 

 ject : " Separated or diclinous flowers are termed 

 ■monacious, when the staminate and pistillate are 

 both produced by the same individual plant ; as in 

 the Indian corn or maize, carex, the birch, the oak, 

 beech, hazel, hickory, &c. ; and they are called 

 diceciaus when borne by different individuals ; as in 

 the willow and poplar, in Ceratiola, the hemp, hop, 

 &.C. In many cases, while some of the flowers are 

 staminate only, a portion are perfect, the different 

 kinds occurring either on the same or different indi- 

 viduals ; as in most palms, in many species of 

 maple, in Veratrum &c. plants with such flowers 

 ^e said to be polygamous." (Gray's Botanical 

 Text Book, page 1 17.) Now the strawberry plant, 

 in a state of nature, and in its cultivated aspects, so 



fiir as I have observed, does not exhibit the charac* 

 teristics of diclinous flowers. I have observed ia 

 many plants, both wild and cultivated — and among 

 them Hovey's seedling — a state that Mr. Long- 

 WORTH and his coadjutors call staminate and pistil- 

 late. But in every case that I have observed, the 

 pistillates have stamens, though probably not de- 

 veloped sufficiently to perform their associate func- 

 tions, and hence their infertility ; and also in what 

 are called staminates, the pistils are always pre- 

 sent, although from some cause their barrenness is 

 probably produced by an undeveloped, an accidental 

 abortion, or a diseased state of the pistilliferous or- 

 gans. Almost all kinds of fruit are subject to the 

 same accidents, and some varieties more than 

 others, which renders them more or less produc- 

 tive, according as they are more or less affected 

 with this deficiency. One positive fact is worth 

 more on scientific, as well as legal questions, than 

 a thousand negative /acts, and the positive state- 

 ments of Mr. Downing, with regard to the change 

 produced by time and cultvation on his beds of 

 Hovey's seedlings, is worth more to my mind than 

 a cart load of the reasonings of the Cincinnati Hor- 

 ticultural Society. Indeed, the manner in which they 

 meet these facts, is evincive that they are aware of 

 the weakness of their position. Listen to them one 

 moment. " This effect of change from productive 

 beds, (of pistillates,) to unproductive beds of ' blind 

 plants.' may be readily accounted for in several 

 ways : admitting that the bed was originally com- 

 posed of the runners from one individual plant of a 

 pistillate variety, we all know that some berries 

 will be left upon the ground, when the seeds ger- 

 minate and are likely to produce staminate plants." 

 The "admission" that they require, is reiuted by 

 the positive fact recorded by Mr. Downing, and 

 their fine spun theory is necessarily demolished. 

 Their "ifs and ands," and "may bes," therefore, 

 must fall to the ground. They are careful to im- 

 press upon us the idea that there are ^'several" 

 ways of accounting for the results of Mr. Downing's 

 experiments, yet the one above quoted, requiring a 

 fatal admission, is the only one in a long article 

 upon this subject, brought forward to sustain them 

 in their position. Although nature is said to be a 

 master workman, we know that there are many 

 circumstances, occurring in a thousand instances, 

 tending to thwart her in her accustomed operations. 

 There are hundreds of instances, where the seeds of 

 vegetables are blighted from the abortion, either of 

 the stamens or pistils, (and one is as fatal to fertility 

 as the other,) under circumstances which can not 

 readily be accounted for, from the very simple reason 

 that we do not know what they are. Fruits of every 

 kind, are known to drop, some seasons, after they are 

 apparently perfectly set, without our knowing the . 

 cause, and consequently not bemg able to account 

 for the fact. Such is the fact also with the straw- 

 berry ; some varieties, and seasons, and situations, 

 rendering it more liable to accidents of this kind 

 than others. From a consideration of these and 

 many other circumstances, that might be enume- 

 rated, did the limits of your useful Journal allow, 

 it does appear ungenerous, as well as unjust, to 

 charge upon the botanist the errors — if we may so 

 call them — of nature, which is obviously evinced 

 throughout the whole vegetable kingdom. That 



