ORIGIN AND BOTANY 131 



which was said to have been bred from the native straw- 

 berry of Iowa. If we assume that the surmise of Mr. 

 Sharpless was well founded, then the sixty-nine varieties 

 known to have descended from his seedling are of F. 

 virginiana blood, in part. These are listed on page 191. 



The Crescent was a chance seedling found by William 

 Parmalee, of New Haven, Connecticut, in 1870. It has 

 been supposed by many to be a pure seedling of F. 

 mrginiana, and it certainly shows many of the characters 

 of that species, both in plant and fruit ; but this is mere 

 conjecture. The sixty-three varieties that have descended 

 from it are listed on page 191. 



Thus a majority of the varieties of known parentage, 

 those out of the Hovey, Wilson, Sharpless and Crescent, 

 are supposed to contain the blood of F. mrginiana in 

 part. There are a number of varieties in which the sur- 

 mise becomes almost a certainty. In 1854, J. S. Downer, 

 of Fairview, Kentucky, produced Downer's Prolific. In 

 1876, James Smith, of Des Moines, Iowa, stated : ^ 

 "Downer produced his Downer's Prolific from seed of 

 the native Iowa strawberry," which is a form of F. 

 virginiana. Andrew S. Fuller called the Charles Downing, 

 which was a seedling of Downer's Prolific, "a large rep- 

 resentative of the western F. mrginiana, var. illinoensis.'^ 

 J. L. Budd asserts,^ " We know that the Charles Downing 

 sprang from the western wild species {Fragaria illinoensis) 

 pollinated by a Chilean variety ; and we also know that 

 in habit of growth and runners and in choice aromatic 

 flavor it follows the native, while the Chilean pollen has 

 given size of fruit and decidedly modified the foliage. 

 Our native species has also transmitted the required 



1 Proc. Iowa Hort. Soc, 1876, p. 337. 



2 "American Horticultural Manual," Vol. I, p. 265. 



