There is a communication in your last number, headed "Staminate Strawberries productive/* and refers to Hovey's Seedling, Methven Scarlet, and Burr's New Pine. I have much to learn, if these are staminates. I say they are all pistillates, and wholly defective in stamens. He reports me as saying that neither will produce half a crop, or bear perfect berries, if separated from all others. Here he again errs. I say that neither variety, separated from others, will bear one-twentieth of a crop of even defective berries, and I have never yet seen them bear a single perfect one. This is not the first instance of a fair crop from pistillates, separated from all others. Mr. Lock, of our vicinity, had a fair crop of Hovey's Seedlings with no other variety within 100 yards, and so notified our society. The next season, when his plants were in bloom, a committee went to his garden, and were astounded, for not a staminate blossom was to be seen, and the stems and leaves proved all the plants to be the true Hovey. When about to leave, one of the committee, who did not believe in spiritual knockings, looked under a currant bush, and found a few staminates in full bloom.

They were pulled up, and the next season Mr. Lock had not a single fruit, and so reported to the society.

Another gentleman was equally fortunate with your correspondent. He bought a pistillate variety and planted a large patch, and had a full crop for three years, and so reported to the members of our society. His garden was visited by the members of the society when his plants were in blossom, and they found the staminates were increasing so fast from runners, that they would soon destroy all the pistillates. Nurserymen generally cultivate many varieties on the same border, and it is rare to buy them without a mixture. Even if the varieties are kept far apart, a seedling staminate may come up, and before he is noticed, ungraciously crowd most of his companions out of the bed. The gentleman errs in saying Burr's New Pine produces fruit of the largest kind. It requires but little sugar, is by many admired for its flavor, and is superior to most others when eaten from the stem. But I deem acid strawberries, where sugar is plenty, superior to all others, and among these the Old Hudson has no superior.

If the hermaphrodite seedling of Mr. Schkike, in the Garden of Eden, shall in future bear as full a crop as it has done for four years, we shall have but little cause to quarrel about the sexual character of the strawberry plant - for it will do what no plant in England has done, where we hear of hermaphrodites only - bear a full crop of extra large fruit, and of good flavor. Mc-Avot's and Schnike's Garden of Eden pistillate seedlings, at our late exhibition, surpassed all others in size, and to one of Mc Avoy's, was awarded the prize of $100, as a pistillate superior to the Hovey in size. Mr. Hovey's has for many years surpassed all others in size, and to be entitled to the premium, it was required the seedling should surpass it in size. This, three of McAvoy's and two of Schnier's seedlings, had done for three years, on exhibition before the society. We ignore your concurrence in the opinion of your correspondent, Mr. Editor, "that pistillates or staminates change their character."

My experience in cultivating the foreign grape, does not correspond with that of your North Carolina correspondent. Against my high garden wall, I have 100 foreign grape vines, consisting of many varieties, and several kinds of native grapes. The natives shoot out as early in the spring as the foreign, and this spring we had a late frost that killed half of the young shoots in our vinevards.

native vines were the longest, and were all killed down. All the shoots of the foreign vines escaped. I attribute this to the more vigorous growth of the native, and the greater quantity of sap. But this is mere guess-work. The shoots of the foreign and native vines, fifty feet from the wall, were all killed. Foreign vines grafted on our natives, are equally tender as on their own stock, and are with me often killed down to the native stock. I shall be pleased to learn that the grapes of your correspondent succeed better in his southern latitude than in our region. He will be more successful than the vine cultivators were in South Carolina. Mr. Guignard wrote me that four-fifths of his wine turned to vinegar; and I know that the wine of Mr. Herbemont, sold after his death at auction, was rapidly becoming good vinegar. They were both men of great skill and judgment. There are many things hard to account for. I believe that wind alone will not impregnate hermaphrodite strawberry blossoms. That insects are necessary. On my border, against a high wall fully exposed to the south, and where, from the warmth of the atmosphere, flies and bees congregated, even in our cold weather, my Schnier's hermaphrodite and pistillates, this season, produced a full crop of perfect fruit.

Fifty feet distant, my pistillates had not one perfect fruit to 100 blossoms, though in close contact with staminates, and the hermaphrodites had not one perfect fruit to twenty blossoms. Here it was too cold to attract insects. A singular instance occurred in my grape-house. The handsomest grape in the house I got from Mr. Buist, but under a wrong name. Its true name I know not. The bunch is very large and the grape beautiful. It has ripened fruit two seasons. Three or four blossoms on a bunch were impregnated, and had very large, long grapes, with seed, and of fine quality. The residue of the grapes had no seed, and were not larger than peas. This spring, by merely shaking the vine, all the blossoms are fully impregnated, and the fruit large. My gardener was led to try this experiment from their practice in England with their hermaphrodite strawberries. In forcing their plants in green-houses, they are placed on boards which are jarred to insure impregnation. I had supposed the location of the stamens over the pistils, and the current of air would always insure impregnation.

It may do it where the blossom shoot is upright, not where drooping.

You say, Mr. Editor, that Texas and New Mexico may hereafter give us Sherry and Madeira wine. The Herbemont grape is a table grape of superior quality, and the most vigorous growth of any grape in our vineyards. This grape, without the addition of spirit or sugar, will make a wine of the same flavor, and of superior quality to the Manza-nilla Sherry, and our Missouri grape, with the addition of brandy, equal to Madeira. I say with the addition of brandy, for brandy is added to Madeira wines. Without brandy, the Missouri makes a superior wine. The vine is hardy, but a delicate grower. The vines should be planted close together and trimmed low.

You say, "no method of securing the plum from the ravages of the curculio, has proved effectual, but placing the trees in the midst of the pig and poultry yard."I have not lost a crop by the curculio in twenty-five years, and in the same time had but two crops in other parts of the garden. I have forty trees planted round the house, with a compact and clean brick pavement extending beyond the tops of the trees. Others have, with good pavements, been equally successful. Some of your eastern writers say, that where their plum trees bend over a stream of water, that that part of the tree escapes the ravages of the curculio. The reason is this, if true. The instinct of the insect teaches it not to deposit its egg where the young roust perish when it falls to the ground, and cannot obtain winter quarters. The insect is a timid one. The proximity of my trees to the house, son why hog pens often keep them off. Destroying the young will not be a perfect remedy, as the insect flies from garden to garden. Mr. Thatcher, of Chilicothe, in a late letter to our Horticultural Society, speaks of an insect that deposits eggs in his grapes, but which passes by those that hang over a pavement.

I find that Dr. Hildreth, of Marietta, of our state, and Dr. Warder, Editor of our Western Horticultural Review, concur with me in the opinion that insects are indispensible in the impregnation of strawberres.

Yours. N. Longworth.

Cincinnati, O., July 15,1851.

Foreign and Miscellaneous Notices.