336 



furnishes a strong instance of the advantage 

 of botanical knowledge. Mr. Keen states, 

 that the want of education deprived him of 

 the benefit of written information ; but it will 

 be found that he has studied the book of 

 nature to advantage. I observed, says Mr. 

 Keen, that some of my strawberry plants 

 g&ve out abundance of male blossoms, but 

 produced no fruit. I therefore, in the year 

 1809, had all these plants taken from my 

 beds, and had other beds, made with the fruit 

 bearing, or female plants only ; but finding 

 my crop entirely fail, and suspecting the 

 error I had made, I procured some . blos- 

 soms of the male plants, which having put 

 into a bottle of water, I placed on one of 

 my beds, and in a few clays perceived the 

 fruit began to swell and thrive on all the 

 plants contiguous to the bottle. 



Having tried the same experiment in se- 

 veral parts of my garden with the like effect, 

 I was convinced of the necessity of the male 

 plants in producing fruit, since which time, 

 I have planted about one male plant to 

 ten female plants, which I find to be the 

 most profitable proportion, as my beds have 

 since been so productive, that it has been 

 scarce possible to gather the fruit without 

 bruising others. Some strawberry plants 



