312 
THE STRAWBERRY PLANT. 
THE STRAWBERRY PLANT. 
In my late communication on the strawberry, I 
discover one error. The wild Kentucky plant, I 
* should have said, was pistillate , and produced 200 
perfect fruit, on the one plant; and that the blossom 
was so defective in the male organs, that without a 
staminate plant near, it would not have produced a 
single fruit. 
I now introduce, copied from Mr. Downing’s work, 
three figures, illustrating the 
Strawberry Blossom. 
Fig. 68 is the blossom in its natural state; a re¬ 
presents the stamens, or male organs; b, the pistils , 
or female organs. 
Fig. 69, a sterile staminate blossom. 
Fig. 70, a sterile pistillate blossom. 
The reader will now be enabled to understand from 
the above cuts exactly what I am talking about. 
Mr. Downing fully admits the propriety of my 
practice, and the existence of separate staminate and 
pistillate plants. That the former are more or less 
defective in the female organs, and unproductive, and 
the pistillate ones wholly so, without staminate plants 
are placed near them, in the proportion of one to ten 
or twelve, ’when the pistillate plants produce a full 
crop. But he introduces a new theory, which, if 
true, dispenses with both staminate and pistillate 
plants, and less cultivation is required, and a crop 
one-tenth, larger is produced; as the staminate plants 
are wholly dispensed with, as well as pistillate ones, 
tnd therefore the labor of keeping down superfluous 
daminate plants rendered unnecessary. His new 
'.heory is, that there is a third plant, perfect in the 
nale and female organs, and capable of itself of pro- 
lucing a full crop of fruit. That all natural plants 
rre of this character, and my staminate and pistillate 
plants, monsters, produced by high cultivation, occa¬ 
sionally only. That in making beds, you must select 
ill natural plants, excluding an occasional plant de¬ 
fective in the one organ or the other. Is this theory 
true ? If it be, to follow it, will be worth a million 
of dollars to the United States alone. For all who 
have gardens of their own, can, on a space of thirty 
feet square, raise sufficient for family use ; and our 
gardeners raise them at a price to bring this delicious 
fruit within the means of the poorest laborer. There 
are few cases where I would venture to dispute the 
opinions of Mr. Downing, for I esteem him as one of 
our most intelligent horticulturists. But 1 do dispute 
it in this case, for I believe I have paid more attention 
to the cnaracter of this plant than he has. 
By natural plants, I presume Mr. Downing means 
such as are found wild in our poor old ‘fields, and 
such as are produced from seed. I wish him to re¬ 
concile the possibility of his theory being true, with 
certain facts which I shall state. If he denies any of 
my facts, I will furnish him the evidence. 
In the poorest old fields in this and other States, as 
well as in the rich prairies of the west, we meet with 
pistillate plants, defective in the male organs, and 
never by themselves producing perfect fruit, and nevel 
failing in a full crop, when staminate plants are near 
them; and when the stamens are prominent, gene¬ 
rally wholly barren, and never producing a full crop, 
from imperfection in the pistils. Why will all per¬ 
sons who raise largely from seed, tell you that about 
equal portions of staminate and pistillate plants are 
produced, and neither perfect in both organs? The 
former are generally wholly defective in the female 
organs, and always partially so, and never averaging 
half a crop ; and the latter so defective in the male 
organs, as never to produce perfect fruit, and rarely 
defective ones, unless impregnated by staminate plants. 
That a blossom of the pistillate plant never fails to 
perfect all its fruit, unless a chance blossom be killed 
by late frost, if there be staminate plants near. That 
among thousands, they have never found what he 
calls a natural plant, one perfect in both organs, in 
all the blossoms. 
Kean’s seedling, and other staminate plants, occa¬ 
sionally have half of their blossoms produce large 
fruit, and other years not one to ten. The fault is 
never laid to the plant, but frost, or drought, or some 
other cause. If the staminate and pistillate plants 
were once natural plants, whose organs of genera¬ 
tion have changed their character, by high cultivation, 
why is it that the flower leaf of the staminate is one- 
third larger than the leaf of the pistillate ? Why is 
it, show, that our market gardeners, and even their 
children, can, when the plant is out of bloom, point 
out the staminate and pistillate plants, from the stem 
and leaf ? I can well understand how a plant per¬ 
fect in both organs, from a disposition from high cul¬ 
tivation to become a double blossom, may force out 
the stamens till they overshadow and destroy the 
humble female ; and it is on this principle, I pre¬ 
sume, Mr. Downing accounts for chance plants, that 
are defective. But 1 would ask him, if high cultiva¬ 
tion, and a consequent disposition in his natural plant 
to produce double flowers, can lead him to believe it 
casts down the male organs in one plant, and thereby 
renders it barren, whilst it raises them up in the other, 
destroying the female organs, and thereby rendering 
the latter partially or wholly barren. On examining 
the pistillate plant, and separating the hull from the 
stem, to which hull the stamens are attached, he will 
find the stamens alive and healthy, but not one- 
twentieth of an inch long, and incapable of impreg¬ 
nating the pistils. It-will be the interest, as I know 
it will be the desire of Mr. Downing, fully to test his 
theory, and cultivate none but natural plants, of all 
varieties, for sale, as all purchasers will now send to 
him. For heretofore, in buying from eastern nurse¬ 
ries, three times out of four, all have proved to be 
staminate plants, and of no value. Our Cincinnati 
gardeners sell pistillate plants in one bundle, and a 
few staminate ones, for impregnating, in another, ex¬ 
cept in cases where kinds are especially ordered, that 
have no pistillate plants. It would not do to make 
such a proposition in this region, but if I were in 
Kentucky, where such things are allowed, I would 
bet an Irish kingdom, that Mr. Downing will not be 
able to meet the expectations of his customers. I 
believe Buist’s new seedling, Codman’s seedling, and 
the Ross Phoenix, to be more perfect in both organs, 
than any other varieties, though I have never seen 
