102 THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA 



I^ongworth when he sent some pistillate plants to the Pres- 

 ident of the London Horticultural Society, who replied 

 that he was not aware that there were strawberry plants 

 that would not bear fruit without impregnation from 

 other plants and suggested that the failure was due to 

 frost ! 



Influence of culture on sex. Both of the leading 

 combatants were guilty of error. After denying that 

 his seedling would be benefited at all by cross-pollination, 

 Hovey finally settled down to the contention that it had 

 been hermaphrodite when he introduced it, but had since 

 become pistillate, having degenerated as a result of poor 

 culture. Hovey had* borrowed this theory from A. J. 

 Downing, who, in turn, had absorbed it from England. 

 English horticulturists, especially Lindley, stoutly main- 

 tained that if there were any such degenerates in America 

 as pistillate strawberry plants they were the inevitable 

 result of indifferent care, barren soil or an uncongenial 

 climate ; good culture or transplanting them to Eng- 

 land would make them whole again. 1 Downing re- 

 flected this view when he said, 2 "Hovey's Seedling and 

 some other sorts do vary from a state that is the normal 

 or perfect one of the strawberry (that is, with perfect 

 flowers), into a pistillate or staminate form." He cited, 

 in support of his theory, beds of Hovey that he had ex- 

 amined in which practically all the flowers were perfect the 

 first year they were planted. The second year, he says, 

 "More than one-third of the plants now bear pistillate 

 blossoms. Of the remaining two-thirds many bear perfect 

 blossoms, as they had done previously, while a few bear 

 imperfect staminate blossoms. Next year we predict that 

 this bed will have changed almost entirely to pistillate." 



1 The Horticulturist, 1 (1847), p. 85. Ibid., p. 572. 



