A TIMELY HINT TO STRAWBERRY GROWERS.

Hot Lakes Chronicle, Volume 3, Issue 148, 2 October 1895, Page 4

A TIMELY HINT TO STRAWBERRY GROWERS.

Writing about strawberries, an ex•iprt states 'hat sex.in plants is a very interesting feature in their pbysk logy, and is of vast importance both to gardeners and agriculturists. Hants in three sexual conditions, tbuc is, the flower which contains the organs of production, be>ing either male, female, or hermaphrodite. The special organs in tho male flowers are the stamens, which furnish pollen, but pever produce seeds, and are called] staminate flowers. The female flowers [ contain the pistils; in tho cvarics of which lie the nucleus of the seeds. These are called pistillate (lowers. The third variety or kind of flowers contains both stamens and pistils. They are called hermaphrodite flowers. The strawberry plant exists in all three sexual conditions, and unless this is understood you mayhavemost flourishing strawberry-bed and yet get little ir no fruit. I knew a bed in a town on the frontier that was famous for Tie quantity of fruit yielded. it got into otlier hands, and was most carefully cultivated, and soon, by thiuiiig out the more i'eeb!e-lookmg plants, the owner succeeded iu getting it filled with etaminate or male plants, and only or perhaps a few with mixed flowers. The next thing I saw was the bed dug up and planted with potatoes. Anyone who has an unproductive strawberry-bed should examine the flowers to see if thoy run too much to staminate or pollonbcaring flowers. Only a few of these purely staminate plants should be left iu the bed, and even those plants witli compound flowers should be made to give way to the purely pistillate oues. |