STJiA WBERR Y gg 



plains of India ; throughout, also, the temperate regions 

 of North America. We have, for instance, in our own 

 dried collection a little wild strawberry-plant from Goat 

 Island, nurtured amidst the spray and turmoil of Niagara. 



The garden varieties, of which there are many 

 hundreds,' all spring from this little wildling, and those 

 who gather a dish of its fruit, admit, after a judicious 

 application of cream and sugar, that even in comparison 

 with any of its cultivated descendants it leaves little to be 

 desired. New varieties are made by crossing and re- 

 crossing existing kinds ; there is now no need to revert to 

 the original species, but it is distinctly interesting to see 

 them doing so in earlier days. In one old book we 

 read that "the ordinary red strawberry grows plentifully 

 in the new-fallen copses," from whence, if you take your 

 plants about August, you will have a very fair encrease." 

 While Tusser, pointing out the work to be done in 

 September, says — 



Wife, into the garden, and set me a plot 

 With strawberry roots, of the best to be got ; 

 Such growing abroad, amongst thorns in the wood, 

 Well chosen and pricked, prove excellent good. 



From a song of about the year 1480, we see that the 



1 "The President of the Horticultural Society, Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq., 

 states that he has at this time not less than four hundred varieties of this 

 fruit in his garden." This passage we extract from The Companion to the 

 Orchard, published in 1831, and is interesting as showing what was being 

 done even then. 



-' The Putting forth of certaine Herbes discovereth of what Nature the 

 Ground where they are put forth, is: As Wilde Thyme sheweth good 

 Feedmg Ground for Cattell ; Betory and Strawberries shew Grounds fit 

 for Wood. 



Bacon, Sylva Sylvamm, 1629. 



