384 



THE STRAWBERRY. 



Selection of Varieties. Independently of fine quality, the 

 selection of suitable varieties is of great importance. Some 

 sorts, celebrated and highly recommended, will not yield a 

 tenth part of the crop afforded by others. The most produc- 

 tive, among which may be mentioned the Cincinnati Hud- 

 son,* the Large Early Scarlet, and the Dundee, have yield- 

 ed at the rate of 50 to 70 and sometimes 100 bushels per 

 acre ; the ground, at the period of ripening, glowing with the 

 dense red clusters which nearly cover the surface ; while 

 of such varieties as Swainstone's Seedling, Myatt's Eliza, 

 and Deptford Pine, the fruit is so thinly scattered and im- 

 perfect, that whole square feet are destitute of fine specL- 

 mens. 



As the productive qualities of strawberries depend so 

 essentially on the presence of the stamens and pistils, some 

 attention to this part of the subject becomes indispensible to 

 their successful culture. 



Modern cultivators divide all strawberries into two dis- 

 tinct classes, one being termed 

 staminate, (or "male,") in which 

 the stamens are fully developed, 

 and possess the power of ferti- 

 lizing the germ; and the other 

 Fig. 290. Fig. 29i. being termed pistillate, (or - fe- 



Staminate flowers Pistillate flowers, male, ) in which the Stamens 



are abortive, or so small and imperfectly developed that 

 they fail to accomplish fertilization. The above figures, 

 (figs, 290 and 291,) represent the usual appearance of these 



Fig. 292. 

 Pistillate flower, magnified. 



Fig. 293. 

 Staininate flower , magnified. 



two kinds of flowers ; and figs. 292 and 293, magnified por- 

 tions of the same, fig. 293 exhibiting a part of the flower 

 of the Large Early Scarlet, and fig. 292, the same of Ho- 



* A single cultivator in Kentucky, who supplies Cincinnati, and who has sixty acres 

 planted with strawberries ; carried in one season to market, from thirty-seven acres, 

 one hundred and twenty bushels per day, for eight or nine successive days. The 

 whole amount sold in Cincinnati, during 22 days in the year 1846, was 4,150 bushels, 

 being an average of nearly 200 bushels per day. 



