APPENDIX. 127 



berry — for instance, Hovey's Seedling — would produce 

 at one time plants with pistillate, and at another time 

 staminate blossoms. This error has been explained 

 by the fact, that a bed of strawberry plants of any 

 known pistillate variety, after standing three or four 

 years, and the fruit falling and decaying on the bed, 

 will produce seedling plants, and of course new varie- 

 ties, and these are as likely to be staminate as pistil- 

 late sorts. The following is the 



Finality on the Stkawbekry. — Wild or culti- 

 vated, the strawberry presents, in its varieties, four 

 distinct forms or characters of inflorescence. 



1st. Those called Pistillate^ from the fact that the 

 stamens are abortive, and rarely to be found without 

 a dissection of the flower. These require extrinsic 

 impregnation. 



2d. Those called Staminate^ which are perfectly des- 

 titute of even the rudiments of pistils, and are neces- 

 sarily fruitless. 



3d. Those called Hermaphrodite or perfect, having 

 both sets of organs, stamens and pistils, apparently well 

 developed. These are not generally good and certain 

 bearers, as we should expect them to be. With few 

 exceptions they bear poorly, owing to some unob- 

 served defect, probably in the pistils. One-tenth of 

 their flowers generally produce perfect and often very 

 large berries. 



