ABOUT FRUITS, FLOWERS AND FARMING. 281 



We will close these remarks by the correction of a matter 

 which Mr. Downing states. While he assents to all the 

 practical aspects of Mr. Longworth s views, he dissents as 

 to some matters of fact and philosophy, and among others, 

 to the fact that Hovey s seedling is always and only a pis 

 tillate plant. He thinks that originally it had perfect flow 

 ers, but that after bearing twice or thrice on the same roots 

 the plants degenerate and become either pistillate or stami- 

 nate. He says, &quot; Hovey s seedling strawberry, at first, 

 was a perfect sort in its flower, but at this moment more 

 than half the plants in this country have become pistillate.&quot; 



Mr. Hovey himself states the contrary on p. 112 of his 

 magazine for 1844. He denies that there are two kinds 

 of blossoms to his seedling, and says, &quot; the flowers are all 

 of one kind, with both pistils and stamens, but the latter 

 quite short and hidden under the receptacle.&quot; This is the 

 common form of sill pistillate blossoms, and shows, in so far 

 as Mr. Hovey s observations are to be trusted, that, at its 

 starting-point and home, Hovey s seedling was, as with us it 

 now invariably is, so far as we have ever seen it, a pistillate 

 plant. 



STRAWBER R I E S. 



DIRECTIONS for the culture of the strawberry will vary 

 with circumstances ; as, whether it is raised for private use, 

 or for market. But, for whatever purpose cultivated, 

 respect must be invariably had to the fact of staminate and 

 pistillate flowers, or male and female. Each flower contains 

 the rudiments of both the male and female organs. But the 

 male organs are more or less defective in one set of plants 

 and the female in another &quot; and, in the Hudson and some 

 others, it amounts to a complete separation of the sexes. 

 In some of the male (staminate) varieties mo re or less of 



