12 STUDIES 01-' NATURE. 



Suppofing all this knowledge acquired, I fliould 

 ftill have arrived no farther than at the hiftory of 

 the gemiSy and not that of the /pedes. The va- 

 rieties would yet remain unknown, which have 

 each it's particular character, according as they 

 have flowers Tingle, in pairs, or difpofed in cluf- 

 ters ; according to the colour, the fmell, and the 

 tafte of the fruit; according to the fize, the figure, 

 the edging, the fmoothnefs, or the downy clothing 

 of their leaves. One of our moft celebrated bora- 

 nifts, Sebdftian le Faillant*, has found, in the en- 

 virons of Paris alone, five diftind fpecies, three of 

 which bear flowers, without producing fruit. In 

 our gardens, we cultivate at leaft twelve different 

 forts of foreign ftrawberries ; that of Chili, of Peru; 

 the Alpine, or perpetual ; the Swedifli, which is 

 green, &c. But how many varieties are there, to 

 us totally unknown ! Has not every degree of la- 

 titude a fpecies peculiar to itfelf? Is it not pre- 

 fumable, that there may be trees which produce 

 ftrawberries, as there are thofe which bear peafe 

 and French-beans ? May we not even confider as 

 varieties of the ftrawberry, the numerous fpecies of 

 the rafpberry and of the bramble, with which it has 

 a very ftriking analogy, from the fliape of it's 

 leaves ; from it's fhoots, which creep along the 

 ground, and replant themfelves; from the rofe- 



* Botanicon Parifienfe. 



form 



