The Strawberry Question. 393 
his delay, his reply was, that "he denied thefact.''^ Such is my 
response to most ot" the assertions to which I have referred. I shall 
now proceed to elucidate my views, and I shall commence by set- 
tinjT forth certain positions, from which I shall make deductions 
and amplifications, sustaining all by facts and arguments. 
POSTULATES. 
1st. A normal strawberry blossom, be it of what character it 
may, never changes, and all the runners from each parent plant 
being component and identical parts of the original, serve only to 
perpetuate its primitive character. 
2d. Normal blossoms of the strawberry are of three forms, first, 
perfect — having fertile stamens and pistils; second, staminate — 
having sterile or abortive pistils; third, pistillate — devoid of per- 
fect stamens. 
3. Plants of the "perfect" character sometimes produce a few 
of their earliest and latest blossoms so weak as to be without sta- 
mens, or with very imperfect ones, which is caused by weakness 
or exhaustion, in the same way as numerous other plants produce 
occasional imperfect flowers, and as even is the case with some 
double flowering plants, which produce single flowers from the 
same cause. But this in no wise affects the general character of 
the plant, which is always maintained in all vigorous blossoms. 
4th. Staminate and pistillate varieties (absolutely so) never 
vary under any circumstances whatever, and those who advocate 
such change might with equal justice assert that male and female 
animals transpose their sexual characters. 
5th. The flowers of two only of the normal forms produce 
fruit — the perfect and the pistillate; the staminate is invariably 
barren. The pistillate is also barren, except when attended by 
plants of one of the other normal forms. The remarks of Mr. 
Huntsman, in regard to normal forms, are very much to the point, 
and highly deserving of respect, as they emanate from a practical 
botanist. 
DEDUCTIONS. 
The fertility of any variety cannot be positively tested and de- 
cided upon, where other varieties that may affect the result exist 
in proximity. 
1st. "Hovey's Seedling," whatever assertions may have been 
made to the contrary by various persons without proper scrutiny, 
was in the original, is now, and ever will be " a distinctly and 
perfectly pistillate plant;" consequently no Hovey's Seedling has 
ever produced, or ever will produce fiuit, without the aid of some 
variety possessing stamens. 
2d. No one of the plants called "Hovey's Seedling," and des- 
cribed otherwise than pistillate by Mr. Downing and others, (un- 
