Strawberry Report, read before Cincinnati Hort. Sjc. 227 



1. That there are many different varieties of the strawberry, which are 

 characterized in part by the foliage, pubescence, mode of growth, and fruit, 

 and also, by their injiorescence, 



2. That the varieties of inflorescence, (the most important to the culti- 

 vator,) consist in the greater or less development of the stamens and pistils, 

 respectively — upon which are based our terms and classification, " stami- 

 natc'' and '■'■ 'pistillate,'''' or, more familiarly with the mass of cultivators, 

 male and female. 



3. That these classes are permanent aberrations from what the great 

 LinncBus considered the normal condition of this genus of plants, as of its 

 natural family Rosacej;. 



4. That nearly all botanists (and among them our most enlightened modern 

 writers,) have overlooked the important error of Linnaeus, and have simply 

 copied after him in their descriptions of the strawberry, without verifying 

 for themselves; while a plain, unlettered market gardener, but a practical 

 and observing man, discovered the important fact, that, while in some 

 plants, the flowers are apparently perfect in both sets of organs, one set is 

 really defective, to a greater or less extent, and in others, the flowers which 

 we style pistillate, have the stamens so imperfectly developed as entirely to 

 elude a casual observation, and only to be discovered by a critical observer, 

 and then, in most instances, found to be wholly abortive. 



5. That no pistillate plant will bear a perfect fruit if kept entirely apart 

 from staminate varieties. 



6. That no staminate plants which we have yet seen, can be depended 

 upon by the cultivator as heavy bearers, though, from some unknown causes, 

 the pistils may be so well developed as to be followed by a good crop, some 

 years, and in some situations. 



7. That there is no such thing yet known to us, as a perfect-flowered 

 strawberry plant, in which the blossoms will all be uniformly so well pro- 

 vided with both sets of organs as to be followed by perfect fruit every year. 



8. That the only method of producing this delicious fruit, with any de- 

 gree of certainty as to the result, is that now adopted by our intelligent 

 cultivators, namely : to set out plants of both of the sexual classes ; the 

 relative proportions of each to be determined by experience, selecting such 

 pistillate kinds as may prove of good size and flavor, and only so many 

 staminates as may be found necessary for impregnation. 



9. That the runners from a strawberry plant are as integral portions of 

 itself, as the branches and buds of a tree ; and, therefore, that we may al- 

 ways propagate any variety by this means, with as much certainty as we 

 perpetuate any variety of apple or other fruit by grafting or inoculation. 



These postulates, the committee proceed to substantiate, and 

 they deny that any staminate variety will ever produce more 

 than a fair crop ; — the result of their observations on the flow- 

 ers of such being 42 berries in 100, and only 17 of these per- 

 fect in shape ! Really, we are constrained to say, our Cin- 



