HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



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HISTORY OF THE STRAWBERRY. 



By HAMPDEN G. GLASSPOOLE. 



{Concluded from p. 129.] 



URING the eigh- 

 teenth century no 

 marked improve- 

 ment took place in 

 strawberry culture. 

 Langley, in his 

 "Pomona," pub- 

 lished in 1729, enu- 

 merates only three 

 kinds : the scarlet, 

 the hautbois, and 

 the wood. The 

 scarlet is a native 

 of Virginia, and has 

 been an inhabitant 

 of our gardens for 

 more than two hun- 

 dred years. The 

 introduction and 

 history of the haut- 

 bois strawberry has 

 never been well ascertained, though it is generally 

 believed to be the mountain strawberry of Bohemia, 

 and to have been first improved by cultivation in 

 France. The name of this variety is probably derived 

 from the circumstance of the lengthy scape or stem 

 which bears the fruit standing higher than the long- 

 stalked leaves, and consequently being called hautbois 

 (high wood). It is not improbable, however, that its 

 original locality, in the high woods of Bohemia, may 

 have suggested the name. In old gardening books 

 it is written "hautboy." 



About 1766 the Alpine strawberry was introduced. 

 It is said that George III. received the seed from 

 Turin, and that it was sold at a guinea a pinch. 

 Nevertheless, after a few years beds of this plant 

 were to be seen in almost every fruit-garden. In the 

 early part of the last century the Alpine strawberry of 

 Chili was introduced into the Royal Gardens at Paris, 

 and thence found its way over many parts of Europe. 

 Mr. Knight, the President of the Royal Horticul- 

 tural Society in 1809, devoted his attention, talent, 

 No. 259. — July 1S86. 



and fortune to the perfecting of fruits, and to none 

 more perseveringly than the strawberry. In his 

 time the strawberry of the garden, however rich, was 

 small, and unwilling to bear abundantly, compared 

 with the sorts now in cultivation. But the experi- 

 ments of Mr. Knight led to the production of a race 

 of which the British Queen was the great example, 

 and from which that called the Princess Alice Maud 

 is another form. The varieties of the strawberry, like 

 those of other fruits, have been so increased by care 

 and cultivation that to describe them distinctly in an 

 article like this would be almost impossible. No 

 English fruit can stand in competition with the straw- 

 berry for wholesome and salubrious qualities. The 

 fruit consists almost entirely of matter which is soluble 

 in the stomach, and which neither when eaten nor laid 

 together in a heap ever undergoes acetous fermenta- 

 tion. Hence they are very nourishing, and may be 

 eaten in quantities without any bad consequences, as. 

 is the case with plums and many other sorts of fruit. 

 It is said they dissolve the tartarous incrustations of 

 the teeth, promote perspiration ; and persons afflicted 

 with gout have found relief from using them very 

 largely. We are told that Linnaeus kept himself 

 almost free from this distressing complaint by eating 

 plentifully of this fruit whenever it was in season. 

 Hoffmann says he has known consumption to be cured 

 by them. The bark of the root and the leaves are 

 moderately astringent, and were often used as gargles, 

 etc. Lord Bacon says: "Among the flowers that 

 yieldeth the sweetest smell in the air he reckoned 

 violets, and next to them is the musk rose, then the 

 strawberry-leaves in autumn, dying with a most excel- 

 lent cordial smell." This delicious cordial smell is 

 said to be only discernible to those who have aristo- 

 cratic blood in their veins. The leaves of this plant 

 have been chosen as a badge to adorn the coronets of 

 our highest nobles. The ducal coronet is ornamented 

 with eight strawberry leaves, that of a marquis has four, 

 but viscounts and barons have no ornamentation of 

 these leaves. Since 1715, the base of an archbishop's 

 mitre has been a ducal coronet, consequently the 



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