VARIETIES. 525 



be rejected perhaps the better course or resort must be had 

 to other plants, having stamens in abundance, to grow with it, 

 and fertilize it. Hence the fault found by many persons with 

 the poorness and unproductiveness of some celebrated sorts, 

 which we all know were perfect in their blossoms at first. They 

 have only received imperfect, or sterile plants. 



With these remarks, we dismiss this little matter, with the single 

 recapitulation, that if a bed has become entirely sterile, it is 

 better to destroy it, and get a fresh stock ; and when this is 

 obtained, to preserve it in a bearing state, by selecting the 

 runners only from perfect plants.* 



VARIETIES. The varieties of this fruit are very numerous, 

 indeed quite unnecessarily so for all useful purposes. They 

 have chiefly been originated abroad within the last thirty years. 

 The different species from which the varieties have been raised, 

 have given a character to certain classes of Strawberries, 

 pretty distinctly marked. Thus, from our own Wild Straw- 

 berry, or Virginia Scarlet, as it is called abroad, have origin- 

 ated the Scarlet Strawberries ; from the Pine or Surinam 

 Strawberry has been raised the class called Pines. From the 

 common Wood Strawberry of Europe, another class, comprising 

 the Woods and Alpines. Beside, there are the Hautbois, from 

 a sort, a native of Bohemia, the Chili Strawberries, from South 

 America, the Green Strawberries, and the Black Strawberries. 



Of these the Pines and the Scarlets are the largest and highest 

 flavoured. The Wood and Alpine Strawberries are valuable 

 for bearing a long time, and parting freely from the hull or 

 stalk, in picking. 



* George Lindley, one of the soundest practical English horticulturists, 

 covers the whole matter in the following remarks. It should be premised 

 that the old Hautbois are more liable to become sterile than any other 

 Strawberries : 



" Having had a parcel of Hautbois plants given me some years ago, I 

 planted them out, and suspecting there were many sterile plants among 

 them, I did not suffer a runner to remain the first year. The second year, 

 five plants out of six proved to be so, which I immediately destroyed ; and as 

 soon as the runners of the fertile ones became rooted, I planted out the bed 

 afresh ; these produced one of the most fertile crops I ever saw, and the 

 runners from them produced the successive crops the same. 



" I selected a few of the finest of the first berries of those which bore the 

 first year, and sowed the seeds ; these produced, as might be expected, 

 both fertile and sterile plants, the latter of which I again destroyed, and 

 saved a few only of those which produced the finest fruit, and of similar 

 size, figure, and quality : the runners from these I planted out as before, 

 and they produced me a perfect crop of fruit, without a single sterile plant 

 being found among them : thus was my first stock of prolific Hautbois 

 obtained." 



