BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



Le Fraisier (the Strawberry Plant) by the Count de Lambertye. 



In 1863, one of the most distinguished writers for the 

 Horticultural Press, Count Leonce de Lambertye, published 

 a complete treatise on the Strawberry. This book was a 

 great success. It constituted a renography at once botanical, 

 historical and cultural, elaborated by a rare genius for 

 co-ordination, and containing practical instructions based 

 upon the personal experience of the author. 



Up to that period, the publications on the Strawberry 

 were limited to a few special works and some scattered 

 papers in the periodical Reviews and Bulletins of Horti- 

 cultural Societies. The old authors, such as Claude Mollet 

 and La Quintinye, said little about them, and the only 

 varieties known were the Alpine and Hautbois; but they 

 were already the objects of skilful culture. 



In 1770 the « Histoire naturelle du Fraisier » by Duchesne 

 appeared, an excellent book, which gave a great impulse to 

 the cultivation of the Strawberry. It enumerated ten races of 

 Strawberries, founded mainly on those then just published by 

 Miller in his Gardeners Di<-fi<>n.anj, which had then reach- 

 ed its seventh edition, and may justly pass as the most 

 complete horticultural treatise of its period. Miller described : 

 the Wood Strawberry, red and white varieties, the Virginian 

 Scarlet, another variety from Louisiana ; the Alpine Straw- 

 berry, which is no other than the « Fraise de tons les mois » 

 of the French, known since that epoch by the Dutch under 

 the name of Fraise perpdtuelle ; the Hautbois, an European 

 variety descended from Fragaria elatior, which Miller erro- 

 neously believed to have come from America; and the Chili 

 Strawberry, brought from that country in 1712 by Frezier, 

 who sent it at first to the king's garden at Paris. From 

 thence it passed over to Holland, to M r George Clifford of 

 Amsterdam, whence Miller introduced it into England, in 1 727. 



Up to Poiteau (Arbres Fruitiers, 1807 to 1836) there was 

 little change. At that period 25 varieties of the Strawberry 

 were grown. 



But in England, through the introduction of the American 

 Strawberries, and the varieties of seedling origin, great pro- 

 gress had already been made. Lindley's Guide in 1837 con- 



Their culture improved likewise. Count Le Lieur, in the 

 Pomone frangaise (1842), brought it to such a point that his 

 method is considered the best even to this day. Fortunate 



acquisitions succeeded each other, and already in 1842 the 

 catalogue of the Agricultural Society in London included 

 115 varieties, divided into 7 classes. The same year a German, 

 author, Legeler, published in Berlin a manual of forcing (die 

 Treiberei) wherein he treated of the Strawberry. M. Courtois- 

 Gerard, 1843, gives tolerably ample information on this 

 subject in his Manuel pratique du jardinage. A long series 

 of articles in diverse publications rapidly swell the sum of 

 our knowledge of Strawberries. 



In 1858, M. Mac Ewen, a young gardener of great merit, 

 whom death removed at the very moment he was appointed 

 Director of the London Horticultural Society's gardens, 

 published a pamphlet of 30 pages on the culture of the Straw- 

 berry, a work of great excellence, causing a keen regret for 

 the loss of its author. The knowledge hitherto amassed was 

 now augmented by the results of the labours in hybridisation 

 of M. de Spreckelsen, a gardener of Hamburg, on Fragaria 

 lucida, which appeared as though it would cross with the 

 biferous Strawberries, a hope which has not since been 

 realised. 



A year later, in 1859, Messrs. Koch and I'intelmann of Ber- 

 lin and Potsdam, published in the Wochenschrift a list of 

 100 varieties of Strawberries, from which about 50 varieties 

 of slender merits should now be eliminated. 



Since then, various works devoted to the Strawberry have 

 seen the light, and amongst the best w r e must mention those 

 of M. Robine, who possess a fine collection, and M. Gloede's 

 book. 



Count de Lambertye has maintained his position in the 

 first rank amongst his confreres on this interesting subject. 

 The book he has just published is the second edition of the 

 treatise of 1863, and is improved by the knowledge and 

 experience of the last decade; I mi t the author has deemed it 

 advisable to condense it, making of the whole a popular 

 cheap edition. We cannot too highly recommend its perusal: 

 it is in fact a vade mecum without which a gardener's library 

 is not complete. The best praise we can bestow upon it 

 is that its usefulness is equal to that of other works by the 

 Count de Lambertye, a respected teacher, who utilizes in 

 the most noble manner the leisure hours of a retired life in 

 the country. 



Ed. Andre. 



