-558 THE SMALL FRUITS OF NEW YORK 



Bunyard finds still earlier records than those given by Stvirtevant. 

 He ' writes: 



" It is not easy to fix an exact date for the first mention of the Straw- 

 berry, but it is generally held that to Nicolas Myrepsus, a Greek doctor of 

 the thirteenth century, must be accorded the honour. Both in Greek and 

 Roman literature the Arbutus and the Strawberry were g ven a common 

 name, a result of the theory of affinities then so much in vogue Pliny, 

 however, distinguished the difference in flavour, and the name ' fragum ' 

 must, no doubt, have been first applied to the fragrant Strawberry. It does 

 not seem, however, that it was then a cultivated plant, and it is usual to 

 place its introduction to cultivation in the fifteenth century. There is, 

 however, ample evidence that it was found in gardens long before this; 

 documents exist which prove it was thus grown in the early part of the 

 fourteenth century in France. The Royal Gardens at the Louvre iinder 

 Charles V. possessed no fewer than 1200 plants, and many other records 

 testify to the appreciation of the fruit by its presence in French gardens 

 at this period." 



From its earliest cultivation to the present time this strawberry has 

 varied but little as grown in European gardens and is seemingly devoid 

 of possibility of great improvement. Cultivated variet es, after 300 years 

 in the garden, are scarcely better in plant and fruit characters than the wild 

 type. The fruits on wild or cultivated plants are small and delicate and 

 borne sparingly on plants which are not at all self-assertive and need watch- 

 ful care in the garden. Some increases in the size of the fruits have been 

 noted in cultivated varieties, but Bunyard, in the reference given, states 

 that there are instances recorded, and gives examples, of large-fruited forms 

 found in the wild and draws the conclusion that greater size in fruit of the 

 pure-bred species is not only and always associated with cultivation. 



It is impossible to say how many varieties of F. vesca have been culti- 

 vated in Europe, but no one of them has ever been widely or commonly 

 grown in America. It is to be found now only in the plantations of botanic 

 gardens or plant breeders on this side of the Atlantic. The Fressant seems 

 to have been one of the first and the most prominent of the varieties of this 

 species in England and France, and was at one time much grown in the fruit- 

 growing regions about Paris. 



Reference to the discussion of the botany of this species, page 373, 

 shows that in Europe there are several varieties and forms besides the type, 

 some of which have aroused interest as curiosities but none of which 



• Jour. Roy. Hart. Soc. 39:541. 1913-14. 



