Character and Habits of the Straioberry Plant. 357 



mixed with others, bears a full crop of large berries, is transplanted as a 

 treasure into a bed by itself, for increase. The gardener is the next season 

 surprised to find it wholly barren, and, after one or two trials, throws it 

 away. 



The nurseryman, within a space of 100 feet square, cultivates twenty or 

 more varieties, and a large portion of them are always staminate, and im- 

 pregnate the pistillate varieties. Fruit not being their object, their atten- 

 tion is not directed to their bearing, and the failure of a full crop in any vari- 

 ety is attributed to frost, or accident, or its being a bad bearer. Of this, 

 we have a strong instance in Hovey's seedling. It is eleven years since he 

 raised this plant; he has increased it extensively for sale. Six years since, 

 I made known the defect in the male organs of the plant, and drew his atten- 

 tion to it ; and asserted that an acre of them separated from all others would 

 not produce a perfect berry. Till 1842, he continued to contend, and was 

 positive that his plant was perfect in both organs. In 1842, he admitted, 

 in his Magazine, its defect in the male organs. In 1844, he went back to 

 his old doctrine, as will be seen by his Magazine ; and it was not till the 

 August No. of his Magazine of the present year that his mind was again 

 mystified on the subject. How are the mere tvorkies to gain information, 

 when the editor of a Horticultural Magazine, and a nurseryman, who under- 

 takes to enlighten others, has not, in eleven years, ascertained the charac- 

 ter of his own seedling] lam the less surprised at this, and acquit Mr. 

 Hovey of blame, as Mr. Downing, in a recent letter, assures me, that last 

 season, he raised a fine crop of Hovey's seedlings, on a bed far separated 

 from all others ; and for a still stronger reason — that even the London Hor- 

 ticultural Society holds the same doctrine. But the question is now under 

 investigation, and light is thrown on it yearly by cultivators, and even the 

 London Horticultural Society will soon acknowledge their error ; but not 

 till Mr. Hovey has satisfied his own mind, when he will doubtless draw 

 public attention to it. Yet Mr. Hovey, in his August No. of the present 

 year, states, a person had cultivated an acre of his seedlings, where they 

 were mixed with staminate plants, and raised two thousand quarts, and that 

 his new seedling is valuable for impregnating his old one. Here is a tacit 

 admission, that his old seedling is defective in the male organs. The yield 

 was not a large one. Mr. Jackson raised at the rate of five thousand quarts 

 to the acre, near Cincinnati, as he informed the public in a late publication. 

 Mr. Downing, I am positive, had not Hovey's seedling unmixed Aviih oth- 

 ers. 



To keep varieties separate is next lo an impossibility, and the more so, as 

 new ones are often produced in the bed from chance seed. I was absent 

 from home two months this summer, and left it in charge with my gardener 

 to watch the beds, and keep down runners. On my return, I found the pis- 

 tillate beds had become mixed, and the staminate Iowa had run on the ad- 

 joining pistillate beds, on each side, a distance of nine feet. But though 

 Mr. Hovey appears to admit that his old seedling requires staminate plants 

 near, on the same page, he remarks, " It is time and labor thrown away to 

 cultivate sterile plants, as has been recommended by some individuals, when 



