THE STRAWBERRY. 669 



Strawberry Blossoms. 



Perfect blossom. Staminate blossom. PMlate blossom. 



Besides these, there is really a third class, quite distinct, the 

 blossoms of which are regularly hermaphrodite, or perfect, in 

 themselves, and which always bear excellent crops though not 

 perhaps so large as some of the most prolific of the pistillates do 

 when fertilized. To this belong the Common English Wood 

 Strawberries and the Alpines. Hence, these old inhabitants 

 of the gardens have, from their uniform productiveness, long 

 been favourites with many who have not understood the cha- 

 racter and habits of the larger staminate and pistillate varieties. 

 No. 1 as above shows the blossom of this class of strawberries. 



VARIETIES. The varieties of this fruit are very numerous, 

 indeed quite unnecessarily so for all useful purposes. They 

 have chiefly been originated abroad within the last thirty years. 

 The different species from which the varieties have been raised, 

 have given a character to certain classes of Strawberries, 

 pretty distinctly marked. Thus, from our own Wild Straw- 

 berry, or Virginia Scarlet, as it is called abroad, have originated 

 the Scarlet Strawberries ; from the Pine or Surinam Straw- 

 berry has been raised the class called Pines. From the 

 common Wood Strawberry of Europe, another class, com- 

 prising the Woods and Alpines. Besides, there are the Haut- 

 bois, from a sort, a native of Bohemia, the Chili Strawberries, 

 from South America, the Green Strawberries, and the Black 

 Strawberries. 



Of these the Pines and the Scarlets are the largest and highest 

 flavoured. The Wood and Alpine Strawberries are valuable 

 for bearing a long time > and parting freely from the hull or stalk, 

 in picking. 



CLASS I. 



Scarlet and Pine Strawberries comprising suck Varieties as a re 

 most generally esteemed. 



BOSTON PINE. 



Raised by C. M. Hovey, Boston, Mass. This fine early straw- 

 berry, to have it in perfection, requires rich, deep soil, and to be 

 grown in hills or bunches eighteen or twenty inches apart each 



