STBUCTUKE OF THE PLANTS. 19 



only necessary to say here that in cultivating pistillate 

 varieties of the Strawberry, it is better to select a large 

 and good flavored one to supply it with pollen than one 

 that is small and of inferior quality. 



STKUCTUKE OF THE PLANTS. 



If we closely examine the varieties of any one species 

 of the Strawberry, we find that they resemble each other 

 in their general habits or manner of growth. No one 

 at all familiar with these plants would ever mistake an 

 Alpine Strawberry for one of any other of the well-known 

 species, and even the Hautbois Strawberry, which, in 

 some respects, resembles the Alpines, is sufficiently dis- 

 tinct to be easily recognized. There are varieties of the 

 "Wood or Alpine species that produce no runners, grow- 

 ing in clumps or stools ; still the foliage plainly showa 

 their origin, and, as we have no hybrids between the Al- 

 pines and other species, there is no difficulty in recogniz- 

 ing them wherever found. But with the North and 

 South American species or Virginian and Chilian Straw- 

 berries the line of demarcation is not so easily deter- 

 mined as formerly, because they hybridize so readily that 

 their specific characteristics have become almost obliter- 

 ated in the cultivated varieties. 



The Chili Strawberry in its wild state produces larger 

 and milder flavored fruit than our common American or 

 Virginia Strawberry, and probably for this reason it has 

 been a favorite with the cultivators of the Strawberry in 

 Europe, and nearly all of the noted varieties raised 

 abroad are of this species. This is why so few of the 

 European varieties, as they are termed, succeed in this 

 country, having descended from a semi-tropical species. 

 But in recent years the European and native sorts have 

 been crossed and so thoroughly intermingled that it is 



