22 BOOKS AND CURRENT LITERATURE 



the eighteenth century. Apparently no wild prototype of this pine 

 strawberry has ever been found and as it was destined to play a very 

 important part in strawberry breeding, its origin becomes a matter of 

 considerable interest. In "Survival of the Unlike," L. H. Bailey, 

 after a painstaking study, puts aside the theory of a hybrid origin, 

 and concludes that variation induced by the change of environment 

 from Chili to Europe resulted in the direct development of the pine 

 from the Chilean, and hence the blood of Fragaria chiloensis if not pure 

 at least preponderates in our present varieties. Fletcher, in the work 

 under review, marshalls a number of facts and arguments in support 

 of the older idea that the pine strawbeny was a hybrid between L. 

 virginiana and F. chiloensis. He brings into more prominance the 

 historical fact that the original importation of five plants of F. chiloen- 

 sis taken from Concepcion, Chile to Brest, France by Frezier in 1712 

 were all pistillate and that inasmuch as a number of hermaphrodite 

 varieties of F. virginiana had already been growing in European gar- 

 dens for a hundred years, the origin of the pine strawberry as a chance 

 hybrid between these two species is well within the range of probability. 



In the chapter on breeding, page 213, we note the following: " 'Pedi- 

 gree' strawberry plants have not proved to be permanent departures 

 from the type of the variety .... It is evident that few if any, 

 permanent varieties may be expected from this source. ... It 

 would be better if they were sold for what they really are — selected, not 

 •'pedigree' plants." 



On the whole. Dr. Fletcher's book forms a welcome addition to the 

 literature of American horticulture. — J. Eliot Coit. 



