Character and Habits of the Strawberry Plant. 359 



berry (VITI. pp. 257, 404,) and commented upon by us at 

 various times. They have also been ably discussed by our 

 correspondents in the last four volumes. We shall, therefore, 

 only correct Mr. Longworth in some of his statements, and 

 sum up the whole in three questions, viz : — 



1st. Are there male and female plants'? 



2d. Can what are termed (erroneously) pistillate plants, be 

 made what are termed (erroneously) staminate ? and 



3d. Are perfect flowering plants necessary to fertilize im- 

 perfect flowering ones 7 



Mr. Longworth's remarks abound in so many errors and 

 inconsistencies that we shall scarcely expect to notice all. In 

 the first place, he states, that Mr. Keen discovered the evi- 

 dence of the male and female flowers in 1809 in a bed of his 

 ^^ new seedlmg.^'' Our correspondent, Mr. James, has shown, 

 (X. p. 110,) that this experiment was with the common Haut- 

 bois, and not with any seedling of Mr. Keen. In the next 

 place, he asserts that we have denied that our seedling had 

 defective blossoms : we should be pleased to have him point 

 out the time : we did assert that it was owing much to culti- 

 vation whether they were defective or not, from reasons which 

 we have before given (IX. p. 415,) which we would commend 

 to the notice of our readers ; for, although we have changed 

 our views, from more recent experiments in regard to the ne- 

 cessity of perfectly developed blossoms to impregnate imper- 

 fect ones, those remarks form the groundwork of our opinion 

 in regard to the true nature of the strawberry blossom. 



Another gross assertion Mr. Longworth makes in regard to 

 our new seedling, the Boston Pine. He states that " although 

 raised in 1834, we have never before discovered its fine qual- 

 ities." We never made any such remark ; the Avords are his 

 own coining. Not only did we discover its qualities at the 

 same time of Hovey's seedling, in common with five or six 

 others ; but we have devoted time and patience ever since that 

 time, to the selection of the best of these, all of which were 

 finer thari two thirds of the commonly cultivated kinds, till at 

 last we were assured the Boston Pine had no superior in all 

 its qualities combined. 



It is Jive years since the fruit was first exhibited, but we 

 were not desirous to dispose of the plants till the autumn of 



