and means of producing good crops. 261 



were taken for sale at that time, and the present spring; yet 

 there was a sufficiency left to produce a good croj), and be- 

 fore the plants began to throw up their flower stalks, Mr. 

 Longworth's communication came to hand, and we were quite 

 astonished to hear that be had seen a whole bed, in which 

 there was not a perfect fruit: we at first believed he could not 

 have seen the true varie(y; but knowing Mr. Longworth to be 

 a gentleman distinguished in horticulture, and upon whose 

 statements we could rely, we determined to watch the bed 

 carefully when the plants began to bloom, and satisfy our- 

 selves. This we did; and the most rigid examination has con- 

 vinced us that he is correct. The new bed above alluded to 

 flowered freely, but it has not produced twenty quarts of fruit, 

 though it was large enough to produce at least two bushels. 

 In this bed of upwards of five thousand plants, we did not 

 find a flower with perfect stamens. We then had recourse to 

 the original bed, where a few straggling plants were growing; 

 after a careful inspection we found from forty to fifty, out of 

 perhaps a hundred left, which had perfect flowers, that is, pro- 

 ducing both stamens and pistils; these we took up carefully, 

 and they are now doing well. The question then recurred to 

 us, whether the original plant might not have been perfect in 

 its flowers, but by the rapid marmer in which the runners had 

 been increased, the flowers had become imperfect. U this 

 had not been the case, where should the staminate plants have 

 originated, when not one was found in the new beds? Could 

 they have been accidental seedlings? This question cannot be 

 settled until the plants have produced fruit another year. 



But it may be asked, how our plants in the original bed 

 should have produced such crops. This is easily explained: 

 in parallel beds of fifty feet in length, each containing two or 

 three rows, we cultivated the Wood strawberry. Keen's seed- 

 ling, Methven, pine. Early Virginia, and some others. The 

 consequence was, that however deficient our seedlings might 

 be in stamens, the abundance of them in the other kinds was 

 sufficient to fertilize the whole bed. It was probably this 

 which deceived us, and led us to the conclusion that the flow- 

 ers were perfect, and the distance at which the bed we have 

 before mentioned was placed from all other kinds, has been 

 the means of convincing us of the truth of Mr. Longworth's 

 statement. 



It is somewhat singular that none of the English writers on 



