Retrospective Criticism. 189 



your readers we might have put to sleep, had we not agreed to settle the 

 dispute in a more peaceable and expeditious manner. We set a plant of 

 each " cheek by jowle," in a remote corner of the garden, and three weeks 

 will put one of us to silence : 



" For facts are cliiels that winna dinj, 

 And downa be disputed." 



You are correct in saying that " stamens are sometimes converted into 

 petals." But this does not prove that pistillate plants of the strawberry 

 become staminate by running, by high cultivation. Two facts prove the 

 contrary. In raising from seed, both male and female plants are produced, 

 and our market gardeners, who cultivate the strawberry with great care 

 for market, can distinguish the male from the female plant at all seasons. 

 To put this question at rest in your mind, do me the favor to plant three or 

 four female Hudson's, separate, (say fifty feet from any other), and by them 

 plant one staminate early male Virginia, and at the same time plant an 

 equal number of female Hudson's, at a like distance from other plants, 

 without any male, and a few days will test the principle. I request a like 

 experiment from all others, who have a doubt on the subject. Where the 

 sex of the plant is unknown, the person can wait till the first blossom 

 appears, to enable him to judge of the sex, and then move them carefully 

 with a trowel, with a ball of earth. Yours, fyc, JV. Longivorlh, Cincin- 

 nati, Ohio, March, 1844. 



[We shall not again undertake to enter into an argument to substantiate 

 our views, as the experiments we now have in course will satisfy us of the 

 truth or incorrectness of our views ; noticing therefore one ur two re- 

 marks of our correspondent, we pass over the subject until after the fruit- 

 ing season, when we shall have some experiments to give in detail. 



I. Mr. Longworth states, that when the blossoms are perfect (that is, 

 stamens and pistils in the same flower,) the fruit is always small. This 

 is certainly an error : we have raised Keen's Seedling of immense size, 

 and the blossoms abound in large stamens. 



H. In speaking of the male Hudson plants, our correspondent remarks, 

 " In favorable seasons the female organs develope strongly and produce 

 a middling crop." If this holds true of the male or staminate plants, why 

 may it not of tlie female or pistillate plants .'' and in favorable seasons why 

 may not the ma/e organs " develop strongly." It is admitting just what 

 we have before stated was the fact, in reference to our seedling. 



III. " I state explicitly that pistillate plants never become staminate by 

 running." How can we reconcile this with such remarks, as " male and 

 female Keen's Seedling," " Methven Scarlet," " Hudson, &c." when it is 

 well known that the whole race of these plants originated from one parent 

 stock of each kind } 



IV. Mr. Downing, as late as October, 1843, when we visited him, stated 

 to us that he considered the idea of male and female plants as entirely ex- 

 ploded. We were particular to learn his opinion in this respect, as he first 

 mentioned the subject in our pages some years ago. And we were pleased 

 to learn that his views had changed, and were the same in every respect 

 as our own. 



These are the more important points for consideration in the communi- 

 cation of our correspondent, and we shall be glad to have them more fully 

 explained. — Ed."] 



