94 



The Canadian Horticulturist. 



strawberry grower. The Wilson, for 

 example, will produce fruit in abun- 

 dance wholly isolated from any other 

 variety, but the Crescent, similarly 

 situated, will bear comparatively light 

 crops. The reason of this is evident 

 upon the examination of the flowers 

 of the plants themselves, for we find 

 the Wilson to be a perfect flower, 

 having both stamens and pistils, as 

 is shown in fig. 27, in which the cen- 

 tral portion is a group of pistils, or 

 organs of the flower in which the 

 seed is produced. Around these 

 may be seen a fringe of stamens, or 



Fig. 27. Fig. 28. 



organs which bear upon their tips 

 little pods called anthers, full of a 

 fine yellow dust called pollen. Now 

 unless the pistils receive a portion of 

 this pollen the seed never will mature, 

 and if the seed fails to mature, the 

 strawberry, which is but the recep- 

 tacle which holds the flower and 

 later the seeds, will never develop. 

 The Wilson, having a supply of its 

 own, as represented, never fails in 

 this respect, and is therefore called 

 perfect or hcrmaphvodltc. The Cres- 



cent blossom, shown in fig. 28, has 

 pistils, but is almost entirely lacking 

 in stamens. It must, therefore, 

 depend upon the pollen of some per- 

 fect variety growing near, as the 

 Wilson, and is called pistillate. In 

 addition to these two classes there is 

 a third, or stniiiinate class, in which 

 the flowers have stamens, while the 

 pistils are few and imperfect. These 

 latter class, it is evident, can not 

 bear fruit under an}- circumstances, 

 whether near to or far from pistillate 

 plants. This latter class does not 

 exist among cultivated varieties, and 

 hence Mr. Knapp's statement that 

 strawberries may be divided into 

 two classes, hermaphrodite and pis- 

 tillate. 



From the above it is evident that 

 to attain the best results with pistil- 

 late varieties, hermaphrodites should 

 be planted in proximit)'. Growers 

 differ as to just what distance is 

 necessary to attain the best results ; 

 some advising a row of pistillate 

 every third or fourth row, while 

 others think one in seven quite 

 sufficient. 



As to the kinds which succeed best 

 in company, much success has been 

 attained with Crescents (P), fertilized 

 with Captain Jack (H), for quantity, 

 or with Sharpless (H) for size; also 

 with Manchester (P), fertilized with 

 Sharpless (H). 



