And shall I tell how pleasures so simple lower buds, just as in such cases is done have been so sufficient? how, with opportu- from a Fuchsia stool. Where plenty of light nities of the most limited degree, I have can be obtained to mature these lower buds needed never to repine? and how my daily in summer, a protection of moss, thrown bouquet has rarely, for eight months in the over the bottom of the plant in winter, year, failed me? Two short rules have would save the plant sufficiently to bloom sufficed. I have confined myself to flowers. out-of-doors in summer. As a denizen of of the easiest culture, and have learned to the green-house, however, we have to do be content with results easily attainable and with it here, and there it is not only always within my reach. Early-rising has compen-attractive, whether as a small plant with one sated for long office-hours, and afforded flower, or a large one with many flowers, time for those little attentions, in themselves but a well grown specimen always testifies so sweet and so delightfully requited. to a considerable amount of pains-taking Strong health has been given to me for a effort. It is easily propagated, either by seeming sacrifice of rest; and nature, seen the older shoots, or those merely two or in her dress of richly-spangled dew, more three inches in length, which is often necesgorgeous than diamonds or orient pearls in sary to thin out; the latter strike very beauty, has been my daily enjoyment. Then, quickly in a slight hot-bed. With nothing indeed, are many glories of nature most but a green-house, you will not have glorious; then are her sweetest odors much of flowering plants next season, unpoured forth; then it is we are most ready less you can grow them extra well. You to sing with Wordsworth: are quite as likely to have a flower this autumn, or two months hence, if the young shoot you have selected proceeds from a well ripened bud Your flowers, next season, depend upon the maturing of your young shoot or shoots this autumn. The Then it is when "pleasant gratitude," rises having your plants struck any time this most spontaneously to the Author of all summer and autumn, and keeping the plants good for the richly-varied beauties around in a cold pit, or in a cool, shady place duus; then is the pansy most pleasant, the ring winter, in the green-house, will give pink most delightful, the wall-flower most you an advantage over spring propagated sweet, the rose most charming; then strong-plants. est within us is the love of those sweets "God made the flowers to beautify To pleasant gratitude." "Which comfort man in his distress, Their fragrance and their loveliness And fostering them we reap a rich harvest Hydrangea Hortensis. THIS is quite hardy enough to stand uninjured, out-of-doors, in the southern parts of the island; and though the top parts, farther north, are often destroyed by the frost, it will often send up flowers from its I shall describe the treatment necessary for a young plant next season, and that will also show what is wanted for the present. Nothing is so grateful for the aid of a hotbed, either when striking, or when you are starting the plant into fresh growth in the spring. Sandy loam and decayed cow-dung will grow the plant well. A seven inch pot will grow a nice plant, with from one to three large heads of bloom. For a large plant, a twelve or sixteen inch pot will be necessary. With nothing but the green-house, the growth will be less rapid, and you must delay operations until the sun has gained strength, in March and April. Then, as your small plant pricks up its ears and grows vigorously, give it a shift into a larger pot, as it requires it, and according to the size you wish it to attain. If to be large, you will require to stop it in April, that you may double or treble your number of shoots. As, when growing, it is a regular drinker, STRAWBERRIES SEEDLINGS. water. 563 you may humor it by setting the pot in a Growing rapidly, maturing thorsaucer seldom destitute of water. By the oughly, and resting quietly, are the secrets middle of June, unless the plant stands in a for obtaining immense heads of bloom, in roomy, open, light greenhouse, you may the future, from a little excitement and plunge your pot in the open garden, shading nourishment. the plant for a few days at first, mulching A friend lately complained that he had it with well decayed dung, supplying with some young plants from a blue flowering plenty of water, and twisting the pot round, kind, and he thought he was done for, beonce a week or so, to prevent the plant cause his plants all came pink. Nothing of freely rooting through. By the end of Au- the kind. The color of this plant can not gust, water should be gradually withheld, so be propagated. It depends on circumstances, as to assist the hardening of the shoots and such as soil, etc. I have failed, with all my the ripening of the buds. By the end of scheming, at one time, to get a pink flower. September, the less rain that falls on the I have equally failed at others to get a blue plant the better. By the end of October, one. Frequently, I have had several shades house in a cold pit, or beneath the stage in of both on the same plant. Iron filings, a cool green-house. Where there is a hot- mixed with the soil, and watering with a bed, or a hot-house, the plant may be ex- weak solution of alum, will frequently yield cited into growth any time after Christmas; a beautiful blue, but not always. The loams of course, with a green-house alone, you of Hampstead Heath, and Wimbledon Commust wait until the sun gains strength. A mon, generally produce this result, as do key-note to the culture will at once be appa- several peat earths found near Edinburg, rent, if it is recollected, that it should be Berlin, and St. Petersburg. An oxide of pruned, thinned, and grown similar to a iron, or the presence of alum, is generally Vine; the flowers on the points of the supposed to be the cause; but I think there shoots this season, coming from well ripened is great uncertainty in working out, at all buds, formed on the shoots of the preceding times, such a result. I have not, however, year, a fact which generally renders the experimented for some years, and shall be best appearances in pots, to be produced glad to know if recent experiments have from plants comparatively young. When been more decided in their result. growing and blooming, they dearly r lish-Cottage Gardener. almost everything in the shape of manure R. FISH. Pomology. STRAWBERRIES-SEEDLINDS. carry to market. I bought a root of it, and will send plants for distribution as soon as I have them. I also sent a quantity of the seed, which is planted. In my recent visit to New York, I was at tion. It is a sweet fruit, and too soft to their Horticultural Exhibition Room. I there saw a plate of white strawberries, called the White Bicton Pine. It is from England. One of the berries measured four and a half inches. It is of a light pink color, on the I was there advised to put ice over the side exposed to the sun. It is hermaphro- seed, before planting, and insure the seed dite, and if the crop of this year is but an growing in five or six days. I planted some average, it is a good bearer. I do not deem according to these directions, and some in that it will be valuable for extensive cultiva- the old way. If there be no difference in Strawberry Culture. R. G. PARDEE, Esq., of Palmyra, after recommending a thorough preparation of the ground for the strawberry, suggests the following application to the plants, previous to the bearing season. He says, "Instead of manuring good soils, the better way is to water the plants freely in the spring, once a week until they blossom, with a solution ordinarily of one fourth pound each of Sal Soda, Nitre, and Glauber Salts, with one to two ounces of Ammonia to six gallons of water; or, if I wish to obtain very fine berries, I make a better solution of onequarter pound each, of Nitrate of Soda, Sulphate of Potassium, Glauber Salts, with one to one and a half ounce of Sulphate of Ammonia, to six gallons of water. The Nitrate of Soda and Sulphate of Ammonia, I was unable to find in many of the largest drug stores in New York. I at last obtained them of William Burgher, Cortlandt street. with pure water, or occasionally soap suds Water the plants if needed, intermediately form the wash. their time of starting, I shall attribute it to my want of faith. Should you make a like trial, I fear you would not be more fortunate, as you set your experience of twenty years in cultivating Hovey's seedling, against the doctrine of Mr. Downing and others, of a change in its sexual character by heat. In other words, converting the blushing maiden to the masculine gender, by more heat. You say, if this can be done by increasing the heat, why should it never occur in the open ground, where, some seasons, the difference of heat is greater than we are told is necessary to produce the change under glass. But you will recollect that Mr. Downing's change was in the open ground, and that all the plants changed to the male gender. But you are unreasonable. You will, in answer to this, say that, in proof of the change, he sent plants to Boston, when Mr. Hovey, and all their strawberry growers pronounced it a different plant. Miracles abound in these days, and when I believe that Hovey's seedling changes to a staminate, I shall believe it will also change the shape of the leaf, and its other peculiarities, by which we readily distinguish it from all others, where we have cultivated it for years. We do not cultivate the Alice Maude. It is said to resemble the Hovey. But, genin six or eight inches of the plant, for it tlemen, the strawberry question is settled. Read an editorial article in the Prairie Farmer of the present month. Mr. Meehan's changing the sexual character of the pistillate plants into staminates by forcing, is thrown into the back ground. The Editor's A block of ground fifty feet square, with plants of Hovey, Hudson, and Necked Pine, only ordinary care and ordinary productiveand other pistillates, have changed to stami-ness ought to produce for a family twelve nates, in open ground culture. Who dare to fourteen bushels annually of this delicious fruit, or a bed five feet by twenty-five with good care will yield more than one bushel easily. doubt the assertion of a Horticultural Edi- N. LONGWORTH. Fall and spring are good seasons to transplant, but I consider the 1st of July preferable, when the ground can be thoroughly prepared, and good plants obtained, for after that the ground is not liable to pack or bake so hard as in June, and if the plants grow unchecked, a full crop of fruit may be received from them the next season. The plants are to be transplanted with great care, preserving as entire as possible, all the small fibrous roots, and never permit a hoe or other instrument to work with would certainly destroy a multitude of those fibrous roots, and essentially maim the plant. Mulch freely with tan-bark, saw-dust, or other litter free from seeds. Fresh rowen or green grass in the early spring is also excellent. It is very apparent that a large propor tion of all the labor bestowed, even by professed gardeners, on the cultivation of the strawberry is lost, owing to want of know THE STRAWBERRY QUESTION. ledge how to cultivate it properly, or the want of a simple acquaintance with the habits of the plants. The labors bestowed by most ladies on their flower beds is also mainly lost, for the want of a little thorough knowledge on that subject. Water is to be applied when needed, and plaster to be entirely avoided. Most strawberries will bear, if allowed to run, so as nearly to cover the entire space of ground. Others, like the British Queen, Boston Pine, Willey, etc., do better in rows or hills. The analysis of the strawberry plant and fruit exhibits to us what should be the application of specific manures in solution. The fruit contains 21 parts of potash in 100, 14 parts lime, and 27 parts soda, etc." The Strawberry Question. "We invite attention to the article in the present number, on what has been very undeservedly magnified into "one of the great questions of the day." We have entertained these views for many years. The high source from which the article emanates, entirely supersedes any remark of ours. This "strawberry question," so called, has always seemed to us one of the most simple, a mere matter of fact, and it has been a matter of wonderment that so much should have been said and written, and such formidable resolutions passed, on what is at last comprised within the limits of a mere nut-shell." -Penna. Farm Journal. 565 I should apologize for asking your readers to look once more upon this topic, already worn sufficiently threadbare; and upon which yourself and many others have so completely occupied the field, as to leave nothing for me to communicate. My apology is this: the July number of the Farm Journal, the leading newspaper of its class in Pennsylvania, and one extensively read there and elsewhere, contains an important article from a distinguished botanist, whose dicta are of high authority throughout the Union, but who does not appear to view the abnormal defects and peculiarities of the strawberry blossoms as marks of permanent varieties, but as accidental aberrations from the natural state. Indorsing this article, the editor expresses his surprise that so simple a matter should have become "one of the great questions of the day." He claims to have entertained these views for many years, (meaning, I suppose, those of his learned correspondent.) He considers this strawberry question one of the most simple-a mere matter of fact," and he wonders that so much should have been said and written upon so small a matter. So, indeed, Mr. Farm Journal, do we wonder; but then our amazement is, that with all the learning of the THIS topic has engaged much attention in Egyptians, (and from them down,) with many of the periodicals devoted to the which you and your great luminaries are encause of agriculture and horticulture; but, dowed, your eyes should have been blinded alas! it is too often the case, Mr. Editor, to the simple observation of facts, and that that quires of paper and oceans of ink are you are thus prevented, by the dusty lore wasted, in conveying from the mind of of the ancients, from making your own obthe writer to that of the reader, thousands servations of nature! The whole thing is of words explanatory and descriptive of indeed "comprised within the limits of a mere theory, without the simple observation mere nut-shell," but you good folks over of facts necessary to establish, or sufficient the mountains appear to lack the energy and to overthrow, the whole. Give us the ex- ability of the nut-thach, and have not yet. perimentum crucis, or, as Franklin might been favored with the precious morsel conhave said, the experimentum fish's-in plain tained within the shell. English, use your eyes and all the difficulty vanishes. So much for the editor, who is supposed to be the son of the botanist, W. D., of West Chester, Pa.; who can be no less than the distinct individual, similar in all its exten sions or runners, each of which continues for an indefinite period to present the characteristics of the original seedling plant from which they emanated. This opinion is based upon sound physiology, and confirmed by careful observations of thousands of plants of the given variety. To the learned botanist, however, we must all concede the honor of having discovered what he calls neutral flowers, a term that is new to us, and needs an explanation. venerable William Darlington, whom all lovers of the delghtful study admire and revere, but whose age and standing do not screen from animadversion when he, who has spent a long life in careful observation, now attempts to decide a question without sufficiently observing the phenomena of nature. His learning, his fame, and the interesting cases he cites, are well calculated to give his paper a sort of authority and weight, especially with the filial editor, which it does not possess with those who can see at a glance that he has not been heretofore familiar with phenomena in the peculiarities of the strawberry's inflorescence, that have been long noted by those who have critically observed and studied them. We all agree that dogmatism is not argument, and that, in natural history especially, all questions should be settled by facts; but W. D., in noticing one of Meehan's strawberry plants, cites the fact of one cyme bearing pistillate and another perfect blossoms, both coming from the same crown and root, in evidence that change may occur. This he introduces as a new fact, showing that he was ignorant of its being a characteristic mark of some varieties, as long since set forth by our writers, but which we have never been able to detect in thousands of enlargement of the esculent portion or nidus closely watched specimens of other kinds. The writer is a sound botanist, and guards us against confounding the changes which he claims to have witnessed with "transmutation of one kind to another," but, unfortunately, he was not familiar with the characters of Eberlein's seedling, or he would not have quoted the peculiarity above alluded to as a novelty. What we claim respecting the strawberry, as I understand it, is, that there are many varieties, more or less distinct, each having peculiarities in the blossoms, leaves, fruit, etc., and that each is a Another point is alluded to by the great botanist, to which a passing remark may be hazarded: In his scientific language he admits that the fruit-i. e. seed-require the presence of a staminate flower for their impregnation, but he appears to think that the fruit of the market and table-i. e. berry, what everybody else means by the word fruit, but what he calls the enlargement of the receptacle, which affords an esculent substitute for fruit-may become enlarged and luscious without any impregnation of the seeds or true fruit. I shall not claim any boon from him nor from the scientific world for the assertion, founded upon repeated and extended observation, that no pistillate strawberry will furnish esculent fruit when deprived of. the farina of the anthers: the of the seeds proceeds pari passu with the maturity of the impregnated germen. Of the truth of this postulate, I beg leave, Mr. Editor, to refer to yourself. In the same number of the Journal, and upon an adjoining page, is a communication from William R. Prince, who takes, what I consider, the true ground; unbiassed by any botanical prejudices, he appears to be a plain, matter-of-fact man, who has used his eyes to some effect, and very extensively too among this class of plants, if we may judge from his voluminous articles descriptive of |