ON THE SCIENTIFIC CULTURE OF THE STRAWBERRY. 45 



points so assiduously aimed at by our great strawberry growers ; but we 

 may well inquire whether these varieties, or any of them, fulfil all those 

 conditions, so necessary in a really perfect strawberry plant. In fact, we 

 may, and must, ask the question, " Is Science brought to bear on the Art 

 of strawberry culture in this country ? " 



We fear that we shall " offend the susceptibilities" of a great number of 

 professionals and amateurs, when Ave express our opinion, that, in the 

 culture of the strawberry in the United Kingdom, science has not been 

 applied in aid of the art so liberally bestowed. 



We take the ground, that so hardy a plant should certainly appertain 

 more to open field culture, than to the elaborate and expensive horticulture 

 of the garden. The former may be designated as a natural growth, under 

 man's care and supervision ; the latter is truly a forced and unnatural {id 

 est, an artificial) existence, more suited to the requirements of a tender 

 exotic than to the hardy strawberry. 



Growing wild, close to the Falls of Montmorenci (near Quebec), we have 

 seen and eaten its highly flavoured fruit, the intense frosts of Canada and 

 Labrador hurting it not. In the sweltering regions of Charleston and 

 Savannah (in South Carolina and Georgia) we have feasted upon it for many 

 months in the year, the tropical heat doing it no harm. On the Alpine 

 heights, and in the hot valleys of Spain, it meets us again. Far up on the 

 Himalaya mountains, beyond "Nynee Tal," and even the highest abode of 

 man, this kindly plant offers its tiny fruit to the weary and adventurous 

 traveller. Down again in the heated vales of Cashmere, we find it expanded 

 into a greater size, and remarkable for its lusciousness and aroma. 



Why, then, is this plant treated in England like a weak and tender 

 exotic ? Why is it so pampered, so swathed, so swaddled, and its hardy 

 habit so utterly ignored ? It is because Science has not yet been applied to 

 the art of growing this great gift of nature. 



The productions of Myatt, Turner, and others are admirable in their way, 

 and for the especial destination for which they are grown — viz., for the 

 tables of Belgravia, and of the richer classes ; but for the million, and for 

 those great preserve-makers, Crosse and Blackwall, Batty and Co., 

 and others, who supply millions of families with strawberry jam and jelly, 

 in small and very thick-bottomed pots ; their modes of culture are wholly 

 unsuitable, and the supply furnished is totally inadequate to the demand. 



Let us now examine into the causes of all this, and let us see if Science 

 will not aid us in bringing about a very different state of things. 



Botanists have been too much in the habit of promulgating the doctrine, 

 that, in the strawberry flower, the male and female organs exist in a perfect 

 state ; whereas, generally speaking, this is by no means the case, for the 

 sexual difference is peculiarly well marked in almost all varieties of straw- 

 berries. 



Let us sow the seed of a strawberry, and we shall find, on a careful 

 examination of the seedlings, that we have obtained Stamin cites, Pistillates, 

 and Hermaphrodites ; that is to say, Staminates, or male plants ; Pistillates, 



