ORIGIN AND BOTANY 137 



vation. It was offered for sale in one of the first North 

 American trade catalogs, which was sent out by Prince's 

 Linnsean Gardens, in 1771. The White Chilean was 

 grown sparingly for preserves until about 1860, especially 

 in California, but never was popular outside of the gardens 

 of a few amateurs. It has shown but little tendency to 

 vary under cultivation; the few varieties differ mainly 

 in the color of the fruit. F. chiloensis is indigenous to our 

 entire Pacific seaboard ; yet I have not been able to dis- 

 cover a single variety that has sprung from it during the 

 hundred years that have elapsed since there has been any 

 considerable interest in strawberry culture on this conti- 

 nent. 



It might be argued, with justice, that the South 

 American form of F. chiloensis, from which the Pine is 

 supposed to have sprung, may have possessed a tendency 

 to vary into improved forms that is lacking in the North 

 American representatives of the species. This phenome- 

 non is seen in the native plum, Prunus americana. 

 Practically all of the valuable varieties of this species 

 have come from the Mississippi Valley ; the eastern form 

 shows little profitable variation. Yet it would seem 

 reasonable to expect that if North American varieties 

 of the strawberry are of F. chiloensis blood, and nothing 

 else, the species should at least give us an occasional im- 

 proved variety in these latter days. F. virginiana was 

 the mainstay of strawberry culture in North America 

 for over a century. Would it not be strange indeed if it 

 were suddenly and completely dispossessed by a species 

 that is know^n to have produced no valuable varieties in 

 a pure form, either here or in Europe, during the 200 

 years that it has been in cultivation ? 



Extended study of the botanical characters of the several 



