ORIGIN AND BOTANY 123 



We have a reminiscence of this interesting plant in the 

 Pineapple, a North American variety introduced in 1902. 



Keens' Seedling. — Whatever uncertainty may exist 

 concerning the exact botanical origin of the Old Pine, 

 there is no question about the decided influence that it 

 exerted in the evolution of the garden strawberry. Vari- 

 eties of the Pine increased rapidly. When Barnet wrote 

 his famous monograph, in 1824, there were twenty dis- 

 tinct varieties, including the Black strawberries, which 

 were practically the same. The first variety to achieve 

 marked prominence was Keens' Seedling. The introduc- 

 tion of this variety, in 1821, is the beginning of the modern 

 race of large-fruited varieties. In 1806 Michael Keens, 

 a market gardener of Isleworth, sowed seeds of the White 

 Carolina, also called the Large White Chili, a variety which 

 Barnet classified as a Pine. Most of the seedlings were 

 white. One of the best he introduced as Keens' Im- 

 perial. This variety attracted little attention and is 

 of interest only because it was the seed parent of Keens' 

 Seedling, in 1819. Keens first exhibited this seedHng 

 before the London Horticultural Society in 1821. It 

 so far surpassed all other varieties in size and flavor that 

 it won instant and enthusiastic recognition. The 

 Society executed an excellent colored plate of the variety 

 (Fig. 11) and presented the originator with a silver cup, 

 which still may be seen in London. Keens' Seedling be- 

 came the principal parent of modern European varieties. 

 It is still grown and valued in Europe. 



Keens' Seedling was a typical Pine, as may be seen from 

 the following description, made by Barnet, in 1826 : ^ 

 "The fruit is very large, round, or ovate, when ripe of 

 a very dark purplish scarlet next the sun, the other side 



1 Trans. Hort. Soc. of London, Vol. VI (1826), pp. 200-201. 



