332 Retrospective Criticism. 



Art. III. Retrospective Criticism. 



Aberdeen Beehive Strawberry. — (p. 282.) — If your correspondent, W. 

 R. P., would write less, and bestow more reflection upon the subjects he 

 presumes to discuss, his liability to the charge of presumption would be 

 less, and his opinions would not so frequently conflict, sometimes even on 

 the same page, as is the case in the June number of your magazine, pp. 

 282 and 283, and they might have more weight with the community. It 

 is an even chance that he has not yet seen a plant of the Aberdeen Bee- 

 hive Strawberry, yet boldly pronounces it staimnate, and therefore but 

 little can be expected from it ; and while, in one communication, under the 

 above head, he appears to condem all staminate varieties as trash, in an 

 immediately succeeding article he proclaims his acceptance of the challenge 

 offered by Mr. N. Longworth for a productive slarrnnale variety, which he 

 states may be produced on our own soil, as exemplified in his new seedlings, 

 and more especially those from the " Montevideo Pine," to whicii he calls 

 special attention ; and it would appear that his seedling varieties are excep- 

 tions to what he considers a general rule. If, by staminate plants, is meant 

 a deficiency of the female or a great preponderance of the male organs, 

 then I do not consider the Aberdeen Beehive Strawberry to be correctly 

 termed a staminate variety ; but if the blossom shows any stamens at all, 

 it is to be denominated staminate, then it certainly is such. It appears to 

 be perfect in the development of iis floral organs, — that is, hermaphrodite, 

 the stamens and pistils being duly proportioned. The stamens are small, 

 rising a little above the pistils, throughout which they are interspersed ; 

 and so far forth as the most perfect hermaphrodite blossoms of any variety 

 of fruit may be expected to set, this strawberry may be said to give fair in- 

 dications of such promise. It is not pretended that a perfect judgment has 

 been formed, for the plants examined have not been long imported ; they 

 are weak, have produced but few blossoms, and these were removed to give 

 strength to the plants for increase. I presume it will not be contended, 

 that every blossom of a pistillate variety of strawberry will perfect fruit. 

 Your correspondent modestly proclaims, (and this appears to be the real 

 object of his communication,) " that there does not exist on the earth a 

 collection of strawberries presenting any comparison to my (his) present 

 one, and that those who will inspect it will wonder that they should have 

 been misled by cultivating the trash sent out from Europe, with high- 

 sounding names, during the last ten years, when such superior varieties can 

 be produced on our own soil." Misled by cultivating th". trash? By 

 whom? Tell it not in Gath, that your correspondent himself has more than 

 any body else, on this side of the Atlantic, helped to mislead cultivators, 

 by highly commending in his catalogues and selling such foreign trash. 

 Hear him speak at page 47 of his catalogue, for 1845 : — " The proprietors 

 have, in connection with G. W. H — ;pn, Esq., secretary of the Horticul- 

 tural Society, investigated with great care the relative merits of the differ- 

 ent varieties of strawberries, and the inferior and barren kinds have been 



