312 Retrospective Criticism. 



pulp, after being pressed, may be treated with a little alcohol, and will 

 yield still more coloring matter. It may be mixed with alcohol and put 

 up in corked phials for use ; or unsized paper may be stained with it and 

 dried, and will serve for testing solutions ; or the alcoholic solutions may 

 be evaporated to the consistency of an extract, and be kept in that state 

 until wanted for use, — when, by dissolving a little of it in water, or alco- 

 hol, it may be employed for testing any solution for acids and alkalies. 

 It is very sensitive, and is as convenient for use as litmus or tincture of 

 violets, while it possesses the advantage over red cabbage liquor in not 

 readily undergoing putrefaction and loss of color. I have occasionally 

 used it for some years in chemical experiments. — {N. E. Farmer.) 



The Sixteenth Annual Exhibition of the Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society will be held in Boston, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the 

 18th, 19th, and 20th of September next. A larger and finer exhibition 

 is anticipated, than has ever been made — especially of fruits — as the sea- 

 son thus far has been more favorable than for the two or three past years. 

 We hope to see many of our horticulturul friends present at the exhibi- 

 tion. — Ed. 



Hovey''s Seedling Strawberry. — Success seems everywhere to have at- 

 tended the cultivation of our seedling this year. At the exhibition of the 

 Cincinnati Horticultural Society, they were the principal object of atten- 

 tion. The report of the'committee states that "the baskets of Hovey's 

 Seedling strawberry, raised by Mr. Jackson, formed the most striking 

 feature of the exhibition, and challenged the admiration of every specta- 

 tor. The size of the berries ranged from four to five inches in circumfer- 

 ence. There were three or four quarts of them, which were sold at auc- 

 tion, in the evening, at about a dollar a quart." At the exhibition of the 

 Flushing Horticultural Society, L. I., Parsons & Co. exhibited a bowl of 

 Hovey's Seedling, containing the greatest number of fine berries in the 

 room, although in competition with the famous British Queen and Prince 

 Albert.— £f/. 



Art. II. Retrospective Criticism. 



Errata. — In our last number for July, p. 245, 22 lines from the bottom, 

 for " thus" read " this." In our number for May, the engraving should 

 have been ''''fig. 8" in the place of ^'' fig. 7," 3iS fig. 7 had already ap- 

 peared. 



Hovey^s Seedling Strawberry. — I have your strawberry in bearing for 

 the first time this spring, and I find that every flower is impregnated and 

 swelling finely, promising a large yield and large fruit. I have taken a 

 strong interest in the controversy about the diceceous character of the 

 strawberry, and as yet am disposed to side with Mr. Longworth. I have 

 not made any experiments with this object in view, but I have frequently 

 obtained different varieties from New York and Philadelphia, and in most 

 instances they all bore well for a year or two, when they would run out, 

 or become barren, notwithstanding that I tried nearly all the dillerent 

 modes of cultivation recommended through the papers, with ver5undifferent 

 success. I have planted your strawberry apart from all others, except the 

 old white, the Elton Pine and the male and female Hautbois, wishing to 



