20S SYSTEMATIC I'oMOLOGY 



316. Habitat of the Alpine strawberry.— Tli is is the wild 

 strawberry of tlie Old World, wliicli apparently passes without 

 shari> denin real ion into var. umcricnna. Porter, of the New 

 AVorhl. The American form is more slender, with thinner leaves, 

 with more ovoid or eonieal fruits, which are usually more dis- 

 tinctly necked ; its petioles and scapes are sparinj?ly hairy rather 

 than hairy-pubescent. The true F. vesca is an escape from the 

 garden in eastern United States. The species is found in all 

 parts of the north temperate zone in the Old World, while the 

 New World form is native from Newfoundland to North Carolina 

 and westward to the Great Plains. This is the strawberry men- 

 tioned by ancient writers as a wild plant, but, while possibly 

 cultivated in the medieval period, seems not to have been con- 

 sidered a garden subject until the sixteenth century, when it 

 began to appear in all European books on cultivated plants. 

 Until the advent of F, chilocnsis and F. virginiana to garden- 

 culture in the eighteenth century, this was the chief if not the 

 only cultivated strawberry in Europe. 



317. Everbearing strawberries. — Under some conditions of 

 temperature and moisture, nearly all varieties of strawberries 

 bear fruit from early summer to late autumn. Thus, in the 

 Gulf states and on the Pacific slope, the season of most varieties 

 may be made to extend over several months. This tendency is 

 much more marked in certain varieties, and in some of these the 

 season is extended, or a fall crop is produced in the North and 

 East. These ever-bearcrs of the East, having the everbearing 

 character fixed, constitute a distinct strain. They are descend- 

 ants of Pan American, which originated in 1898 with Samuel 

 Cooper, Delevan, New York. W^hether Pan American origi- 

 nated as a bud-sport or from a seed is in doubt. There are now 

 a score or more so-called everbearers of more or less value, in all 

 of which there is still much to be desired. 



The Alpine strawberry, F. vesca, of Europe, often gives ever- 

 bearing varieties which are cultivated in Europe, but these are 

 so unproductive, and the berries run so small that they find 

 little favor in America. AVith these Alpine sorts, as with varie- 

 ties of common cultivation, much depends on climate, soil, and 

 care as to whether the season may be extended or a double crop 

 harvested. 



