September 16, 1876. ) 



JOURNAL OP HOETICULTUBB AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



251 



Fig. 54.— EjcelBior. 



it half as large again. The quality of the fruit is excellent. 



Flesh white and sometimes pinky white, very solid and buttery, 



with a rich vinous flavour. Under glass the plant behaves 



remarkably well. It is, perhaps, rather bushy, and therefore 



requires a full-sized pot, but it boars aooordingly, and I kuow 



of no forced Strawberry bo good in quality or of such uu- 



deviating high flavour. Early Prolific and Duke of Edinburgh : 



for early, and Excelsior for lata forcing, are not to be beaten ' 



by any sorts yet known, 



let anyone say what they 



may. 

 This variety has also a 



property to which I have 



before alluded. After the 



plants have finished fruit- 

 ing the beds present a 



mass of bloom all over 



from the runners, which 



may be removed with a 



little earth, potted, and 



grown-on in a cool frame, 



or if let alone in the open 



ground, and should the 



season be mild it will ripen 



a second crop of fruit late 

 in the season. 



Variegatvd Enchantress 



(fig. 55). This is quite a 



novelty, at least as far as 



my experience goes, I 



never met with a varie- 

 gated sort bearing a good- 

 sized fruit. 



This variety not only bears the class of fruit represented by 

 the woodcut, but the quality is everything to be desired. Like 

 its parent Enchantress, it produces a bright crimson-coloured 

 fruit with very numerous small yellow seeds prominently dis- 

 posed, pinky-red flesh, solid, very juicy, and possessing a re- 

 markably rich Pine flavour. Like most variegated sorts the 

 plant is not very large, but it bears well for its size, and is 

 altogether a late and remarkable variety. 



Next in order is Bonny Lass (fig. 50). The fruit of this fine 

 late sort is very large and 

 handsome, pale red in oo- 

 lonr, with prominent seeds 

 thickly disseminated, re- 

 markably solid pinky-red 

 flesh, juicy, and of good 

 flavour, the flavour im- 

 proving as the season ad- 

 vances. Plant stout and 

 healthy, a good grower 

 and profuse bearer. It 

 commences ripening its 

 fruit at mid- season, and 

 generally lasts all sorts out 

 except Fragaria tardissi- 

 ma. Quite the finest late 

 Strawberry, the latest 

 berries of which, though 

 smaller, have frequently 

 the highest flavour. This 

 sort, with Early Crimson 

 Pine and Sir John Falstaff 

 for early and mid-season, 

 are the three fine sorts we 

 we grow for mai-ket. 



Lastly, Fragaria tard- 

 issima (fig. 57). This is not 



grow largely, but where a little very late fruit is wanted at the 

 middle and latter end of August, and sometimes beginning of 

 September, this will be a desirable kind to grow. The fruit is 

 not very large, and cannot possibly be so good in flavour at so 

 late a period of the season ; nevertheless it is sometimes very 

 good. Colour of fruit bright red with a tinge of scarlet ; seeds 

 depressed and thinly scattered ; flesh pale red, melting and 

 juicy, with fine flavour, varying with the season. The fruit is 

 borne in clusters on shortish footstalks, so that its blooms 

 become quite hidden by the foliage. The plant in my soil 

 makes too much foliage ; so that to ensure success I have found 

 it necessary to considerably reduce the quantity of foliage once 

 and sometimes twice during the season, to enable the blossoms 



Fig. 55. — Vaiif;:aloil I'lichantress, 



f^j/}Tx 



-Bonuj Lass 



a sort anyone would care to 



in the first instance to set their fruit, and later on to ripen it. 

 When this is done the flavour is really very good. The ten- 

 dency of the plant is to set its fruit well ; and from what I am 

 about to relate I doubt not this very late sort, if it possessed 

 no other merit than its lateness, bids fair to be ono of tho 

 parents of a new race of very superior high-flavoured late 

 sorts. These four last seedlings, together with Enchantress, 

 Gipsy Queen, and Fair Lady form a group of late varieties, 



each having some peculiar 

 quality difleiing from any 

 other late sort in culti- 

 vation. 



I must conclude these 

 descriptions by observing 

 that several years ago Mr. 

 Laxton of Stamford was 

 good enough to send me a 

 seedling Strawberry which 

 he described as a cross be- 

 tween the line and Alpine 

 races, having then no very 

 positive characters, and 

 being also anything but 

 fertile— in fact, as he eaid, 

 almost a mule. He sowed 

 the seedling Alliance and 

 sent it to me, thinking it 

 might possibly, if good for 

 nothing else, become the 

 parent of a new race. I 

 worked away at this al- 

 liance of two original types 

 of the Strawberry, sowing 

 the seed of such fruits as I could get from time to time till I 

 produced a considerable amount of fertility. Having so far 

 overcome its mulish propensity, it struck me some two or 

 three years ago that Fragaria tardiseima as a very late sort, 

 but still wanting in some respects, might make a grand second 

 parent for a further acquaintance with Alliance ; for it is a 

 notable fact according to my experience, that you do not 

 generally succeed in producing any very new feature by using 

 parents on either side which in themselves already possess a 



large amount of perfec- 

 tion. I therefore deter- 

 mined to cross two or 

 three of the earliest blooms 

 of P. tardissima with the 

 pollen of Alliance, and I 

 believe I have succeeded 

 thoroughly ; for on sowing 

 the seed of two berries 

 thus treated I have raised, 

 to my mind, one of the 

 most delicious late Straw- 

 berries I ever tasted. 



The season just ended 

 is the second year of the 

 selected plant. It bore a 

 heavy crop of fruit which, 

 though not at present 

 very large, was of exactly 

 the outline of F. tardis- 

 eima. Some of the fruit 

 was rather larger, but 

 darker in colour like 

 Alliance, dark red flesh 

 all through, and so re- 

 markably juicy, sugary, 

 vinous, and melting, that I cannot easily forget its delicious 

 flavour, and am only longing for next season to arrive, when 

 I hope to have the satisfaction of confirming the above im- 

 pressions on witnessing the results from some twenty or more 

 fine plants I have already reared and hope to fruit well in 

 due course. The plant is of stout upright growth, and par- 

 takes of the character of both parents— that is, the colour 

 of leaf from Alliance and the contour of plant from Fragaria 

 tardiseima, and the season will undoubtedly be late. 



If these remarks should catch the eye of Mr. Laxton I shall 

 be happy next season to return Alliance to him improved iu 

 size and fertility, accompanied (if he will accept them) by a 

 plant or two of the new cross, to be named, if still found 

 worthy and be will do me the honour, after Mrs. Laxton or 



Fig. 57.— Frsgaiia tardissima. 



