VARIETIES OF STRAWBERRIES. 359 



grounds, but it seems to have proved so uncertain over the 

 country at large as to have passed out of general favor. It 

 is rather soft for market and not high-flavored enough for 

 a first-class berry. Pistillate. 



Romeyn's Seedling. — I cannot distinguish it from the 

 Triomphe de Gand. Staminate. 



Sharpless. — A very strong, upright grower, with large, 

 crinkled foliage ; truss 5 to 8 inches, strong branched ; 6 

 to 10 large berries often on each; berry carpet-bag in 

 shape, and often very irregular and flattened, but growing 

 more uniform as they diminish in size ; light red and glossy, 

 5 to 7 inches ; flesh firm, light pink ; flavor fine, sweet, 

 perfumed ; calyx recundng ; season medium. One of the 

 very best if it proves sufficiently productive over the country 

 at large. 



Mr. J. K. Sharpless kindly writes m.e : *' I have been 

 much interested in growing strawberries for the last fifteen 

 years, and after being disappointed in many of the new and 

 highly praised varieties, the idea occurred to me that a 

 seedling originating in our ow[i soil and climate might prove 

 more hardy and long-lived. Having saved a fine berry 

 of each of the following varieties, — the Wilson, Colonel 

 Cheney, Jucunda, and Charles Downing, — I planted their 

 seeds in a box in March, 1872. The box was kept in the 

 house (probably by a warm south window), and in May I 

 set from this box about 100 plants in the garden, giving 

 partial shade and frequently watering. By fall, nearly all 

 were fine plants. I then took them up and set them out 

 in a row one foot apart, protecting them slightly during the 

 winter, and the next season nearly all bore some fruit, the 

 Sharpless four or five fine berries. It was the most inter- 

 esting employment of my life to grow and watch those 

 seedlings. Some of the others bore fine, large berries^ but 



