266 HORTICULTURAL MANUAL. 



Others alternate the rows, planting as many rows of per- 

 fect as of pistillate varieties. In private gardens the 

 perfect and imperfect varieties are often alternated in the 

 rows. This plan mixes the varieties in a way not desirable 



FIG. 80. A, Imperfect strawberry flower ; B, perfect flower, show- 

 ing the stamens. 



for furnishing plants, but favorable for perfect pollination 

 and large and perfect berries. 



We now have many varieties of fine size and excellent 

 quality with perfect flowers, but experienced growers prefer 

 to alternate the perfect and imperfect varieties, as it is 

 found in practice that the pistillate varieties will escape 

 injury of the ovaries by frost when those of the staminate 

 sorts are killed. It is also found that a frost that will 

 blacken the ovaries of the staminate varieties will not 

 injure the stamens. The development of pollen is an 

 exhaustive process, hence the ovaries of the perfect varieties 

 are not as well stored with starch, and as perfectly 

 matured, as those of varieties that have no stamens or 

 pollen. 



Fuller says: " Strawberry culture would probably have 

 been just as far advanced if we had never had a pistillate 

 variety in cultivation, and much confusion would have 

 been avoided. Had not Mr. Hovey produced so good a 

 pistillate variety as he did, it is very likely that such kinds 

 would never have been tolerated by fruit-growers any- 

 where." This may be true in some parts of the Union, 



