112 FORMS OF THE STRAWBERRY. 



the common Strawberry. The tips of the calyx are a little elon- 

 gated ; the greenish-white, sometimes red-margined petals, instead 

 of beinc in one row, are produced in four or five rows ; the number 

 of stamens does not exceed fifteen, sometimes not ten ; occasion- 

 ally none are clearly developed ; the anthers flat, frequently one 

 half changed into a petal, and contain occasionally some pollen 

 consisting of transparent vesicles not changed in water, and 

 therefore seemingly destitute of fovilla. Although the usual 

 number and form of petals exist, fertilisation can hardly take 

 place ; '■• the receptacle swells, nevertheless, as in the perfect forms 

 of the plant, into a so-called berry which Duchesne mentions as 

 being somewhat smaller than the common sort, but otherwise of 

 the same colour and taste, while Barrelier pronounces it as being 

 larger, of reddish colour, and excellent flavour. The circumstance 

 which occurs in some plants (I will adduce only the Banana and 

 Pine-apple among monocotyledons, and the Hop and Mulberry 

 among dicotyledons) that a perfect development of fruit, though 

 with barren seeds, will take place without the process of fertilisa- 

 tion, while in most others, under similar circumstances, no fruit is 

 produced, is in the highest degree remarkable, and is a fact which 

 has hitherto received no sort of satisfactory explanation. 



X. — A BRIEF Sketch of the present state of the Question 



RELATIVE TO THE ViNE MiLDEW. By Dr. C. MontagUCf 



My design in this general survey of the cause and progress of 

 the fatal malady which has for some j^ears affected the European 

 vineyards, is to state briefly and methodically the principal facts 

 wliich are scattered about in the multiplicity of pamphlets, 

 reports, and documents which appear daily from every quarter. 

 The question affects so gravely one of the most important branches 

 of our rural economy, that I liave thought that it would not be an 

 ill-timed and much less a useless task to review its past history, 

 to follow the different phases under which it has appeared, and 



* I mixst remark, however, that later flowers must have contained active 

 pollen, for I found well-formed fruits, containing perfect embrj'os. 

 (Subsequent remark, by the author.) « 



t Translated from Coup d'osil rapide sur I'efat actuel de la question relative a 

 la maladk de la Vi<jne parle Dr. Movtar/ne. Paris, 1852. 



