150 The President Wilder Strawberry. 



THE PRESIDENT WILDER STRAWBERRY. 



The ]jlant is hardy, robust, vigorous, and very productive. The foliage 

 is handsome and well developed ; leaf dark-green, roundish, obovate, deep- 

 ly serrated, of great substance, with stiff, short foot-stalks, and stands the 

 extremes of heat and cold without injury. The flower-stalk is stiff and 

 erect, the flowers perfect. The fruit is large, some specimens attaining to 

 more than five inches in circumference ; and many berries this year weighed 

 more than an ounce avoirdupois each. Their color is brilliant crimson 

 scarlet; form obtusely conical; the flesh rosy-white, ver}' juicy, but suffi- 

 ciently firm for market ; flavor rich and sprightly, inclining to sweet, with a 

 distinct aroma of the Alpine or wood strawberry ; seeds small ; season late. 



This variety was produced in 186 1 by Mr. Marshall P. Wilder, from arti- 

 ficial impregnation of Hovey's Seedling with La Constante, the best two 

 varieties, perhaps, that are now under cultiv^ation ; La Constante being the 

 best of the foreign kinds ever brought to this country, and Hovey's Seedling 

 being too well known to need any further mention. 



For perfection of form, flavor, and brilliancy of color, combined, this straw- 

 berry exceeds any thing that has been produced for a long series of years. 



Mr. Wilder has been at work raising seedlings for thirty years ; and al- 

 though he has obtained several good ones, he never yet has got one with 

 which he is so completely satisfied as he is with this. The description we 

 have given above is, we believe, in substance, the description settled upon 

 by the Fruit Committee of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society ; to 

 whom the question of a name was submitted, and who have called the 

 strawbeny " President Wilder." We have no doubt that it will keep Mr. 

 Wilder's memory green for years and years to come ; or that, as soon as it 

 becomes known, it will take the highest possible rank among strawberries, 

 and perhaps supplant every thing else. 



We might go on praising the berry until we had made our readers per- 

 fectly incredulous as to its merits ; but the simplest and strongest proof 

 we can give of the value we set upon it is to be found in the fact that we 

 have purchased, at an enormous price, Mr. Wilder's whole stock, — every 

 plant he has or will have, — and intend to distribute plants among the 

 subscribers to " The American Journal of Horticulture." 



