140 THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA 



trade catalogs dilated upon the virtues of the " wonderful 

 everbearing strawberry, which bears red, white, and green 

 berries." This was mixed seed of Alpine varieties. The 

 Mexican Everbearing, or Maximilian Prolific, introduced 

 in 1867, created a sensation — for a short time. This 

 was said to have been discovered near Jalapa, Mexico. It 

 was supposed to be a new species and was named F. 

 Gilmani, by the Buffalo Academy of Natural Sciences, in 

 honor of the introducer. It was introduced with great 

 acclaim, and sold for $3 a dozen plants, but proved to 

 be almost identical with the old Red Alpine, and practi- 

 cally worthless. There is no reason for doubting that the 

 Mexican Everbearing came from ]\Iexico, for the Alpine, 

 or a closely related form, called F. Mexicana, is widely 

 naturalized there in the higher altitudes, and bears con- 

 tinuously. L. E. Benton has written an interesting ac- 

 count of the Mexican strawberry industry. He says : ^ 

 *' In the city of Mexico we have strawberries every day in 

 the year. In some months they are more plentiful than 

 others, but they are always here in more or less quantity. 

 They are from plants that are practically everbearing, 

 but at no time of the year do they bear one-third as 

 heavily as do the strawberries in the United States. They 

 are knowTi as the strawberries of Irapuato because it is 

 in that district that practically the entire crop is grown. 

 This is about two hundred miles north of the city of 

 Mexico. The fruit is sent by express just as it was 

 picked, loose, in twenty-pound baskets. The growth of 

 the fruit is slowly spreading and now some is grown at 

 Guadalajara and Obregon. 



"The Irapuato strawberry, in leaf, resembles the com- 

 mon northern one. It is distinct in throwing out few 

 1 Rural New Yorker, 1911, p. 314. 



