266 Culture of the Haiitbois, 



Art. XI. 0)1 the Hautbois Straxuherry. By Wm. Anderson, 

 F.L.S., Curator of the Chelsea Botanic Garden. 



Having seen three papers in the Ganle7ier's Magazine describing 

 the hautbois strawberry, none of which is correct, I beg you to 

 state what little I have seen of that plant and its fruit. 



I have seen the hautbois strawberry in its native state in the 

 bottom of old chalk pits, in the copse woods about one mile 

 beyond Tring, on the high ground on the left hand. This 

 gi'ound is a strong chalky yellow clay. The fallen leaves, and 

 other decayed vegetable matter, rest on and manure these pits, 

 and I was told that the plants produced good large berries, but 

 were gathered by birds and children before they were ripe. 



To cultivate this fruit, care must be taken to select the herma- 

 phrodite plants while they are in flower, there being three sexes 

 in the seed-bed, i. e., male, female, and hermaphrodite. When a 

 few of the last are selected, they will give runners abundantly ; 

 and when these runners are planted on a strong rich clayey soil 

 ihey will produce great crops. This sexual character was first 

 pointed out to the late Sir Joseph Banks about the year 1817, 

 and he had great crops from these selected plants ; he also sup- 

 plied his neighbour, Mr. Wilmot, with plants, who had about 

 two acres in cultivation of them in 1820; the clusters of fruit 

 were so large that he had them all tied up to small twigs. From 

 his success I had flattered myself that this most desirable fruit 

 would have been abundant in Covent Garden Market, but we 

 never see it for sale. I have also seen Mr. Oldacre produce 

 great crops of these berries forced ; those that have once tried 

 them for this purpose will prefer them both for size and flavour. 

 I must, however, remind your readers that it is in vain to grow 

 this strawberry in the usual way of the other varieties; but the 

 nearer we come to that chalky clay, or strong loamy ground 

 highly manured, such as Mr. Wilmot's is, the greater will be our 

 success. 



I have been rather tedious, but my wish is to see the hautbois 

 the leading strawberry in forcing and in cultivation ; as it is the 

 best flavoured, and the best bearer where the ground will suit it. 

 I keep the hermaphrodite plants in the garden, but we never see 

 fruit although they flower very freely ; the ground burns up in 

 the first dry weather in April and May, and prevents them 

 coming to perfection. 



Apothecaries' Garden, Chelsea, March, 1841. 



Art. XII. On the Culture of the Conical-fruited Scarlet Alpine 



Strawberry. By W. Gordon, Gardener to the English Embassy, 



Paris. 



I SEND you a short sketch of our mode of cultivating this fine 



strawberry, called by us the Four Seasons, from its producing its 



