S88 



GARDENING FOR THE SOUTH. 



at once a tolerable crop. This climate is well adapted to 

 the culture of this fruit ; since by giving the plants a due 

 supply of moisture, fruit can be gathered the greater part 

 of the year. The great strawberry market of the world is 

 Cincinnati, where over five thousand bushels have been 

 sold in one season. But Mr. Peabody, of Columbus, in 

 this State, is probably the most successful of strawberry 

 growers, having fruit in the open ground sometimes nine 

 months in the year. 



a, STAMIXATB. b, PISTILLATE. C, HKRMAPHKODITH 



In its natural state, the strawberry generally produces 

 perfect or hermaphrodite blossoms. The hermaphrodite 

 are those which have both the stamens perfect, and the 

 pistils so well developed, as to produce a tolerably fair 

 crop of fruit. Cultivation has so affected the strawberry, 

 in this respect, that there are now three classes of varie- 

 ties : — 1st. Those in which the male or staminate organs 

 are always perfect, like a, in the figure ; but the female or 

 pistillate organs are so defective, that they Avill very rarely 

 bear a perfect fruit. These are called staminate. 2d 

 Those in which the female or pistillate organs are perfect, 

 (see h, in figure,) but in which the male organs are gener- 

 ally so defective that they cannot produce fruit at all, un- 

 less in the neighborhood of, and fertilized by staminate or 

 hermaphrodite plants. Impregnated by these, they bear 

 enormous crops. These are pistillate. 3d. (See figure c.) 

 Those, like the native varieties, which are true herma- 

 phrodites, that is, they are perfect in stamens, and more 



