THE SMALL FRUITS OF NEW YORK 355 



PART III 



STRAWBERRIES 

 CHAPTER XIV 



THE EVOLUTION OF CULTIVATED STRAWBERRIES 



The strawberry has remarkable powers of adapting itself to climates 

 and soils. In consequence it is fotmd in one species or another in almost 

 every part of the globe. But in general the many species are lovers of 

 cool climates and of dry, loose, warm soils. Under culture strawberries 

 belong distinctly to cold climates. In tropical and sub-tropical countries, 

 the plants grow but languidly, refuse to bear abundantly, and the fruits 

 are deficient in size, color, flavor, and the delicate fragrance from which 

 the strawberry derives its generic name Fragaria. The plants are most 

 luxuriant, and the fruits are most pleasing to eye and palate where greatest 

 hardihood to cold is reqmred. Wild or cultivated, strawberries are little 

 esteemed in warm countries. Accordingly, they are valued most, and came 

 to their present high estate as cultivated plants in the colder parts of the 

 temperate zones, especially in Europe and North America, to whose peoples 

 they owe domestication. 



The strawberry is not only indigenous in many climates and soils, 

 but wherever it grows, it is usually a very common plant. It prop- 

 agates itself rapidly by runners and grows readily from seeds. Moreover, 

 the seeds are widely and plentifully diffused by birds and animals. There- 

 fore, in strictly agriculttiral regions, there has been little need to domesticate 

 strawberries because of the abimdance of the wild crops. The strawberry 

 differs also, in a very important particular from most other domesticated 

 fruits. Cultivation does not improve its flavor. Preference is often given 

 to the wild fruits under the theory that fine flavor diminishes in proportion 

 to greater size. It is only since we have had the modem strawberry, a 

 matter of a century or thereabouts, that high quality has been embodied 

 in large bulk 



The strawberry has but lately come under cultivation. The ancient 

 Greeks and Romans did not cultivate it. In France and England it is of 

 a comparatively recent period among cultivated fruits. Its history dates 

 back scarcely more than four centuries in French and English gardens. 



