276 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



berries we noticed in a former article, Mr. Downing, and 

 several other eminent cultivators adopt the contrary opin 

 ion, that, with care, large crops of large fruit may be obtained 

 from perfect-flowering plants. This question is yet, then, 

 to be settled. 



It is ardently to be hoped that, hereafter, we shall have 

 less premature and positive assertion, upon unripe observa 

 tions, than has characterized the early stages of this con 

 troversy. We will take the liberty of following Mr. Hovey 

 in his magazine, between the years 1842 and 1846, not for 

 any pleasure that we have in the singular vicissitudes of opin 

 ion chronicled there, but because an eminent cultivator, 

 writer, and editor of, hitherto, the only horticultural maga 

 zine in our country, has such influence and authority in 

 forming the morals and customs of the kingdom of Horti 

 culture, that every free subject of this beautiful realm is 

 interested to have its chiefs men of such accuracy that it 

 will not be dangerous to take their statements. 



In 1842, Mr. Longworth communicated an article on the 

 fertile and sterile characters of several varieties of straw 

 berries for Mr. Hovey s magazine, which Mr. II. for sub 

 ject-matter, indorsed. In the November number, Mr. Coit 

 substantially advocated the sentiments of Mr. L. ; and the 

 editor, remarking upon Mr. Coit s article, recognized dis 

 tinctly the existence of male and female plants. 



He (Mr. H.) says that, of four kinds mentioned by Mr. 

 C. as unfruitful, two were so &quot;from the want of staminata 

 or male plants;&quot; and &quot; the cause of the barrenness is thus 

 easily explained.&quot; And he goes on to explain divers cases 

 upon this hypothesis ; and still more resolutely he says, that 

 all wild strawberries have not perfect flowers ; &quot; in a dozen 

 or two plants which we examined last spring some were per 

 fect (the italics are ours) having both stamens and pistils ; 

 others, only pistils, and others, only stamens thus showing 

 that the defect, mentioned by Mr. T^ongworth, exists in the 

 original species.&quot; He closes by urging cultivators to set 



