Strawberries. 



437 



and often two hundred bushels per acre ; the ground, at the period 

 of ripening, glowing with the dense red clusters which nearly cover 

 the surface ; while on some foreign varieties the fruit is so thinly 

 scattered and imperfect, that whole square feet are destitute of fine 

 specimens. 



STAMINATE AND PISTILLATE SORTS. 



As the productive qualities of strawberries depend so essentially 

 on the presence of the stamens and pistils , some attention to this 

 part of the subject becomes indispensable to their succcessful 

 culture. 



Modern cultivators divide all strawberries into two distinct 

 classes, one being termed staminate 

 (or " male"), in which the stamens 

 are fully developed, and possess 

 the power of fertilizing the germ ; 

 and the other being termed pistil- 

 late (or "female"), in which the 

 stamens are abortive, or so small 



and imperfectly develooed that they staminaie flowers. PistiiiS'e 'flow 

 fail to accomplish fertilization. Figs. 

 453 and 454 represent the usual appearance of these two kinds of 



Fig- 455. 

 Pistillate flower, magnified* 



Fig. 456- 

 Staminate flower ^ magnified. 



flowers ; and Figs. 455 and 456, magnified portions of the same, 

 Fig. 456 exhibiting a part of the flower of the Large Early Scarlet, 

 and Fig. 455 the same of Hovey's Seedling ; tf, being the stamens, 

 and b, the pistils. By the use of a microscope it will be found 

 that the former is abundantly supplied with pollen or fertilizing 

 dust, while the latter is nearly or totally destitute. Hence Hovey's 

 Seedling, or any other pistillate variety, can never, or but very im- 

 perfectly, fertilize its own flowers, and the impregnation must be 

 derived from a staminate sort. 



18* 



