DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



197 



Without (lispulinfT your right of opinion, it can 

 not be tolerated that your misrepresentations should 

 pass unnoticed. The boldness is not for a mo- 

 ment disputed. The generalship displayed, may, 

 however, with much propriety, be questioned. I 

 shall show that the attack was injudiciously made, 

 without an adequate force with which to advance, 

 and no reserve to cover a retreat. This I will en- 

 deavor to do as briefly as the importance of the 

 subject to the public will admit of. 



It will be observed, the committee were appoint- 

 ed for a specified purpose, as set forth in the 

 report. To collect and ascertain facts of the 

 " Sexual character of the Strawberry ." They did 

 not feel it their duty to depart from this, and stop 

 to inquire on whom these facts would likely bear 

 favorably or otherwise ; nor did they go blindly to 

 their work and make assertions not sustained by 

 the best testimony within their reach. It is, how- 

 ever, not the design to enter into an argument on 

 this point, but to confine these remarks to the 

 '■ reviews." 



That it should be viewed as " the vexed straw- 

 berry question," with a manifest desire to get 

 rid of it, if possible, with one bold stroke, by those 

 whose interest is likely to be so materially affected 

 by its further discussion, is not to be wondered at. 

 The committee were not laboring under this mag- 

 netic influence. Hence it will not be considered 

 as remarkable that no other fault is found or criti- 

 cism extended to other parts of the report, although 

 Buist's Prize Seedling, (which the originator 

 vended at $3 per dozen plants,) the British Queen, 

 &c., passed the ordeal and scrutiny of the com- 

 mittee with no less favorable results than the 

 " Boston Pine."* Yet for obvious reasons, we 

 hear not a word in defence of their insulted rights. 

 Not a lisp is uttered of their spuriousness. But 

 the moment the electrifying term Boston Pine ! 

 strikes the sensitive ear, it pours forth the excla- 

 mations, " Really, we are constrained to say our 

 Cincinnati friends do not understand the cultiva- 

 tion of the strawberry, or else they have not the 

 true sorts cultivated under the same names as at the 



* It may not be out of place here to remark that these are 

 alike stamiiiates; and il i* not deiiie'1 in the report that in 

 Pome stamiiiates, as also in some pislillates, the rudiments of 

 the other sexual character exists in a rudimentary and obscure 

 form, as for example, Hovey''s Seedling, (pistillate,) which 

 under peculiar circumstances of cuhivaiion, and perhaps in- 

 fluence of soil and climate, maybe so developed as to pro- 

 duce a partial crop, which, to the casual observer seems a 

 full one A fine example of this apparent productiveness 

 ■was shown in the efforts of a plant of the loiva Male, broufrht 

 to the Society's Hall by Mr. S. M. Carter, of Ky., in the 

 spring of 1S47. This plant had produced one hundred and 

 eleven blossoms, which sat seventy-eight fruit. On close 

 examination, however, it was found that none were perfect. 

 — [.Strawberry Report, p. 11] From these occasional an/y?- 

 cial deviations, we are not however to infer that staminale 

 plants, (strictly so,) are ever to be depended on as bearers; 

 or that pistillate plants (strictly so,) will fruit without the 

 presence and fertilizaliou of staminales When they do, 

 they partake more or less of 6o(/t sexes- This posiiiom must 

 be true, or all experience and reason drawn from the causes 

 of reproduction is of no force, but is a mere fancy as applied 

 to the strawberry. A. H E. 



east." "Really" a wonderful discovery this to 

 dispose of the " vexed question." But to proceed, 

 you say, " Passing over all the descriptions and 

 other matters, we at once come to the portions of 

 the report, which to us, are more important than 

 the discussion of the simple question of stamens 

 and pistils." No doubt here we have the true 

 gist of the matter. The important facts of the 

 report are set aside to make room for a cavil 

 about the terra "perfect," as applied to the Bos- 

 ton Pine, and a ruse is resorted to, to produce the 

 impression that the committee were incompetent 

 and careless, and have been guilty of a false state- 

 ment, drawn from a spurious sort. And the ques- 

 tions are tauntingly asked, " Who raised Mr. Ho- 

 vey's Perfect, as the committee style it 1 Did 

 any one of them ever see such a variety no- 

 ticed in our pages, or described by us 1" These 

 insinuations and questions come with rather an 

 ill grace from a quarter where there has been so 

 much vascillating on this " vexed question," and 

 are too shallow to have much force. 



The observer will see by reference to the report 

 that the term, (Mr. Hovey's perfect) is in brack- 

 ets, and not at all given as the name. To show 

 the propriety of its use in connection with the 

 " Boston Pine," it is not necessary to go farther 

 back than the laudatory advertisement of the 

 Messrs. Hovey & Co., on the cover of the number 

 containing the review, for the sale of the plants. 

 Here it is said, the flowers are all staminate or 

 perfect. If the Messrs. Hovey &. Co., as origina- 

 tors, may use the term perfect, the committee's 

 right should hardly be disputed. 



The next important point that concerns the 

 public is the genuineness of the Boston Pine, from 

 which the committee's observations were made. 

 In the fall of 1845, the w^riter ordered from the 

 Messrs. Hovey & Co., some 8 or 10 sorts of the 

 new strawberries, among them two dozen of the 

 Boston Pine, for which he paid $6, that is $3 per 

 dozen plants. These were carefully planted out, 

 and of course watched with equal care, for areali- 

 zation of the high expectations which the price and 

 their advertisement justified. The next spring 

 after planting, the character o*" their fruiting prov- 

 ed a disappointment. The next equally so, and 

 this spring, with a few reservations, they have 

 been turned under as cumberers of the ground. It 

 -R-as from this plantation that the committee's ob- 

 servatiiyns were made. On a careful comparison 

 of the foliage of the denounced Boston Pine, with 

 that figured in the 3d No. of Hovey's Fruits of 

 America, all doubts of its genuineness is removed. 

 I wish the same identity existed as to the fruit. 

 In that outline you represent 9 out of 14 blossoms 

 as having set.very perfect fruit. What confidence, 

 then, is a review entitled to, so full of wilful mis- 

 statements and denial of facts. 



Now it is immaterial to the Society or this com- 

 mittee, as to the truth or falsehood of what the 

 Messrs. Hovey & Co. say in their advertisement^ 



