200 THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA 



vations indicate that in the North any treatment designed 

 to increase the number or strength of the flower buds 

 must be given the season before the plants fruit. 



Farther South, the flower buds are formed much later. 

 In Missouri, W. H. Chandler was "unable to find the 

 flower parts of the strawberry earlier than February 

 or March, and experience indicates that the number of 

 fruit stems sent up from any crown can be influenced by 

 spring treatment." ^ It is probable that any decided 

 check in growth, whether due to low temperature or 

 lack of moisture, will cause the plant to make flower buds, 

 provided it has arrived at a certain period of maturity. 

 A midsummer drought causes plants to bloom and pro- 

 duce a fall crop ; if conditions are favorable, the crop 

 borne by these plants the following spring may be nearly 

 or quite as large as usual. In south- 

 ern California, flower bud formation 

 and fruit bearing are more or less 

 continuous, but a severe check in 

 growth, such as is produced by w^ith- 

 holding irrigation and cutting off 

 runners, causes the plants to fruit 

 more abundantly at certain seasons. 

 Abnormal structural forms. — 

 These frequently appear, especially a 

 fruit with a stem growing beyond it 

 Fig. 21. — An abnormal (pjg^ 20). A Bubach berry with a 



structural form. , , ' ^^ ^ p .^ 



short stem commg directly irom the 

 flesh of the berry and bearing a tiny flower set in the 

 midst of three small leaves was reported in 1900.^ A 

 more unusual form was found by M. T. Cook in 



1 Bull. 113, Mo. Exp. Sta., p. 279. 



2 Rural New Yorker, 1900, p. 482. 



