£14 THE FLORIST AND 



THE STRAWBERRY CONTROVERSY. 



The communication of Mr. Meehan to the Pennsylvania Horti- 

 cultural Society, seems to have excited the opposition of all those 

 persons, and we believe they are the majority, who have settled the 

 question to their own satisfaction, that the Strawberry is either 

 pistillate or staminate, and unchangeably so. Mr. Meehan has 

 produced his plants (of Hovey's Seedling), with staminate flowers. 

 The Strawberry cultivators pronounce them ( in the teeth of Mr. 

 M's assertion that they are runners from pistillate plants,) to be 

 not Hovey's., but another variety. Some others talk of the absur- 

 dity of plants being fruitful without fertilization, which, whether 

 absurd or not, Mr. M. does not claim for his plants ; we have seen 

 nothing yet on that side in the way of argument, it is all asser- 

 tion ; — The Cinn. Hort. Society, formally pronounced it impossible, 

 and with them there is no appeal from their "ipse dixit. 



In the last number of the Farm. Journal, we have a letter, which 

 we suppose is from the eminent botanist of that region, which we 

 copy, as suggesting many reasons why Mr. Meehan may be 

 right. 



The statement of Mr. Meehan, in the April number of the Farm Jour- 

 nal, alleging that he has observed the sexual characters of the Strawberry 

 flowers to be variously modified by culture, or different methods of treatment 

 — has elicited some strong asseverations of opinion, in contradiction to that 

 .allegation of fact. One writer unhesitatingly declares the alleged change 

 to be "utterly impossible" and I understand that in the Queen City of the 

 West, they have had a public gathering, to deliberate on the subject, which 

 resulted in a Pronunciamento adverse to Mr. Meehan's statement, — his 

 facts and observations being rejected by a clear majority of the voters pre- 

 sent ! The matter being thus settled, by preamble and resolution after the 

 manner of political difficulties at a w T ar-meeting, it may seem to be out of 

 order, now 7 , to offer any remarks on the controverted topic. Nevertheless, 

 as this is reputed to be a Free Country, I should like to be indulged with 

 the privilege of submitting a»few suggestions, — if not in arrest of judgement, 

 at least as a plea in mitigation of the sentence, against my friend Meehan. 

 It is the remark of a vigorous and sagacious modern writer, that "no scien- 

 tific question was ever yet settled dogmatically, nor ever will;" and I think 

 the same may be especially predicated of questions of fact, in Natural His- 



