ORIGIN AND BOTANY 141 



runners; it prefers to grow in a bunch. In this it re- 

 sembles the Alpine, and it may be a cross or variety of 

 the two types. It is called here fresa, which means the 

 common running strawberry, and is distinctly understood 

 not to be the freson which means the Alpine kind. The 

 freson we have here, but it does not succeed as well in the 

 Irapuato district, nor is it as productive. The better 

 American varieties have been tried here many times, but 

 always dwindle and die off. In French catalogues there 

 are both fresas and fresons and it may be that these here 

 were imported from France." 



European everbearing varieties. — The chief faults of 

 the Alpines are their small size and light yield. Beginning 

 soon after the Alpines were introduced, numerous at- 

 tempts were made, mainly in France, to cross them with 

 the common large-fruited sorts. One of the first of these 

 crosses to be widely advertised was Gloede's Perpetual. 

 This was brought to North America about 1865 and adver- 

 tised as a large-fruited everbearer, but proved w^orthless 

 here. In Europe it met with some favor, but was not as 

 dependable as the Alpine. A bush Alpine, the In- 

 exhaustible, originated by M. Mabille, created consider- 

 able excitement in Europe and America about 1872. 



The first really good perpetual strawberry was the St. 

 Joseph, which was originated by Abbe Thivolet, of 

 Chenoves, Saone-et-Loire, France, in 1893. It was the 

 result of thirteen years of crossing of the Alpine with the 

 large-fruited varieties. Subsequently, he introduced the 

 St. Antoine de Padoue, a seedling of the St. Joseph, and 

 several other everbearing sorts of the same lineage. 

 Louis Gautier, another French variety of this class, was 

 introduced into North America in 1894 as "the great 

 twice-fruiting French strawberry; the old plants bear 



