454 Retrospective Criticism. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. Retrospective Criticism. 



Hovey's Seedling Strawberry, with staminate flowers, p. 360. — In your 

 notice of Mr. Longworth's pamphlet on the Character and Habits of the 

 Strawberry Plant, in the September number of your magazine, I observe 

 the following passage at the bottom of page 360 : — " Every cultivator who 

 has found staminate flowers, so called, in his beds of Hovey's Seedling, has 

 found either accidental seedlings, or other varieties." If it is to be inferred, 

 from the passage above quoted, that the true Hovey's Seedlings are all fis- 

 tillate plants, so called, then I beg leave to dissent from the proposition laid 

 down, for the following reasons, viz :— In 1845, when the strawberries were in 

 blossom, I examined a bed of Hovey's Seedling at this place several times, in 

 company with Mr. Downing, and others, as well as by myself; and a large ma- 

 jority of the flowers which stood up in trusses, several to a plant, were perfect 

 in their organs of fructification, having both their stamens and pistils fully 

 developed, and produced one of the most uniform and handsome crops of 

 fruit I ever saw ; and that, too, at the distance of one hundred yards from 

 the regular strawberry plantation, or a strawberry plant of any kind ; and I 

 am certain there were no accidental seedlings among them, for they were 

 two years old plants ; the ground between the plants having been dug and 

 kept clean from weeds, and nothing permitted to grow but the plants which 

 were taken from runners of as pure stock of Hovey's Seedling as there is in 

 the country, entirely free of mixtures of any kind whatever. Having no 

 desire to become a partisan on either side of the strawberry controversy, 

 believing it to be the result of circumstances rather than fixed laws or prin- 

 ciples, and having no other interest than a desire to contribute any facts 

 that may come under my observation, — the above remarks are submitted 

 in a spirit of candor and good will. — A. Saul, Foreman. Highland Nurse- 

 ries, Newburgh, September 22d, 1846. 



We are certainly willing to receive the above in a spirit of candor and 

 good will, as our sole object is to bring forward every fact which may bear 

 upon this question ; still we are so uncharitable as to believe Mr. Downing 

 has endeavored to throw the responsibility of his own views upon his fore- 

 man. If Mr. Saul or Mr. Downing intend to say that they know more 

 about the true character of Hovey's Seedling than we do, it would be very 

 little use for us to discuss the question further. We unhesitatingly say, 

 that every plant, which Mr. Saul or Mr. Downing has found in their beds of 

 Hovey's Seedling ivith stamens, is not the true kind; or, if originally true, 

 they have been allowed to become intermixed with some other varieties, 

 until the original seedlings have been mostly displaced. 



In 1339 or '40, we had the pleasure of presenting Mr. Downing with a 

 dozen plants of our seedling, which had then just been offered for sale, and 



