208 OTTE, COMMON FRUITS. 



fully developed ; but, as has been mentioned before, in 

 some tribes the blossoms are of different sexes upon dif- 

 ferent plants. They are not considered to be so decidedly 

 distinct as in the case of the palms, a careful study show- 

 ing that one part of the organization in the respective 

 flowers is only rudimentary or imperfectly developed, 

 rather than entirely absent, though the practical result 

 is the same as though there were complete deficiency ; 

 and it is easily to be distinguished by an ordinary ob- 

 server that some blossoms present a numerous assem- 

 blage of long, yellow, pollen-bearing stamens, but with- 

 out the appearance of ovaries in the centre to be fecun- 

 dated by them, while in others a cluster of ovaries, looking 

 like a minute green strawberry, is seen in the middle, 

 with no surrounding stamens to shed upon them the 

 golden dust of fertilization. The growers of Cincinnati, 

 according to Dow r ning, divide all strawberries into three 

 classes : the male or staminate, in the blossoms of which 

 the stamens are chiefly developed ; the female or pistillate, 

 in which the ovaries form the principal feature ; and the 

 Hermaphrodite, in which the blossoms are perfect. The 

 latter are given up to those who are content with a sup- 

 ply of inferior fruit at the cost of little care or skill in 

 culture. The first class, to which belongs Myatt's British 

 Queen, usually in that climate bears very uncertain crops, 

 only a portion of the blossoms developing into perfect 

 fruit; while the pistillate kind do not set fruit at all 

 when planted by themselves, but when grown near a 

 proper number of staminate plants, so as to be duly fer- 

 tilized by their pollen, bear larger crops of much finer 

 berries than can be there produced in any other way. 

 The market of Cincinnati, where a few years ago Mrs. 

 Trollope specially noted the poor condition of the straw- 

 berries, but in which 6,000 bushels of that fruit are now 

 yearly sold, is supplied with them more regularly and in 

 greater abundance than perhaps any other in the world, 

 except our own hydra-mouthed London, and such a result 

 could only be obtained by this mode of culture. 



In our own country the largest quantities and finest 

 sorts are grown in the neighbourhood of Isleworth and 



