112 Retrospective Criticism. 



and stage. These were packed in moss, enveloping each root separately. 

 I wrote to a friend, then on a visit in Baltimore, to bring me some from 

 Mr. Sinclair, which he did, both for me and for himself. He wrapped the 

 whole together in a bundle, the roots being well surrounded with earth, 

 and arrived in fine condition, having been seventeen days out of the 

 ground. It being late in November, I planted a part in the open ground, 

 but the greater portion I planted in a box, which I placed in a cellar. 

 Those in the box all perished — those in the open ground, not having time 

 to establish themselves, were all heaved out but one which flourished, and 

 in the same season produced nearly 150 plants, with which, in the spring 

 of 1843, I planted three long rows, with one of Hudson's intervening, 

 and had a good crop in June. My friend treated his parcel in the same 

 manner, with precisely the same result, as to the preservation of his plants. 

 Yours respectfully^ John H. James, Urhana, O., Feh~uary 10, 1844. 



[The remarks of our correspondent are interesting to every cultivator of 

 the strawberry ; yet we do not think they afford any eviaence of the sep- 

 arate existence of staminate and pistillate plants when the strawberry has 

 been properly cultivated. 



The experiment of Mr. Keen was with the Hautbois strawberry, 

 and not with either the Pine or the Scarlet, which are the two classes 

 in which are found all our large and best strawberries. So also the quo- 

 tation from the Catalogue of the London Horticultural Society, again re- 

 fers to the Hautbois. Neither of the two great classes of Pmes or Scarlets 

 have one word said about fertile and sterile plants, notwithstanding all the 

 varieties enumerated had been tried and proved in the society's garden ; 

 and among the Scarlets is the Hudson, the very strawberry which is now 

 brought forward as the type of a family producing separate sexes, or fer- 

 tile and sterile plants. The late Mr. Knight, president of the London 

 Horticultural Society, paid much attention to the cultivation of the straw- 

 berry, and wrote several articles, which appeared in the Transactions of 

 the Society over which he presided ; he also raised from seed the Downton 

 and Elton, two superior varieties ; but we cannot find that he ever men- 

 tioned any defect in the produce of plants, though it is well known that 

 the Downton, under too high cultivation, is decidedly barren of fruit. He 

 alludes to the Hautbois in one article, and states that he was led to believe 

 that it was a different " species " from the scarlet or alpine, as he " failed 

 to obtain mule plants between the alpine and the scarlet and Hautbois." 

 This corroborates the statement of Mr. Huntsman at p. 52 that the Haut- 

 bois could not be fertilized by any but Hautbois. All the experiments 

 with the Hautbois we consider irrelevant to the present question. 



Our correspondent is entirely mistaken in affirming that there have been 

 staminate and pistillate plants of our seedling. No such statement (un- 

 less supposed) has been made by us, and no such fact has ever been no- 

 ticed among the plants. The flowers are all of one kind, with both pistils 

 and stamens, but the latter quite short, and hidden under the receptacle. 

 We do not believe that any variety of the strawberry, by running, will 

 produce both staminate and pistillate plants. If Mr. Longworth's theory 

 should prove true, we apprehend that it is only through the seed that the 

 different plants can be produced, and that the runners will be precisely 

 like the parent. The mulberry belongs to a strictly monoecious order, and 

 cannot be brought forward as a case analogous to the strawberry. 



The recommendation in the Gardeners^ Chronicle, to apply fresh loam, 



