STBAWBEKBIES. 205 



more freely than the parent plants, whereas, in other kinds, 

 this usually does not take place until the next year. 



It was about the close of the last century that the latest 

 and best of all our foreign settlers, the Pine Strawberry, 

 made its appearance. Some affirm that it came originally 

 from Virginia, some from Louisiana, and Miller received 

 some plants of it from " a curious gentleman of Amster- 

 dam," who assured him they were sent from Surinam; 

 but it is not to be found among Madame Merian's famous 

 illustrations of the natural history of that place ; and 

 Stedman, in his account of Surinam, distinctly affirms, 

 "It is well known that no thin-skinned fruit can ever 

 come to perfection in a. tropical climate, such as grapes, 

 cherries, strawberries, &c." But whencesoever it may 

 have been brought, no fruit could better deserve a wel- 

 come, or be more worthy of the proud title it bears, named 

 as it is after the royal pine-apple, not only on account of 

 its conical shape, but from a degree of similarity to that 

 fruit both in its taste and perfume. Since the beginning of 

 this century great attention has been devoted to Straw- 

 berries, and great results attained, about 60 good varieties 

 being now in cultivation, besides many of lesser worth. 

 Yet, among them all, the Pine stands unquestionably pre- 

 eminent not, it is true, in the state in which it origin- 

 ally came to us, but as it appears after the careful educa- 

 tion it has received at the hands of Britith gardeners, in 

 the perfected form of " Myatt's British Queen," of which 

 it may be fairly said, that 



"All that's rich, and all that's bright, 

 Meets in her flavour and her form." 



Neither tantalizing the appetite by concentrating its 

 excellence within atomic dimensions, nor yet deceiving 

 and disappointing it by presenting fair proportions and 

 proving a mere mass of watery distension, this delicious 

 strawberry offers all that is exquisite in taste, while in 

 magnitude often reaching to 7 in. in circumference, and 

 weighing at least 2 oz. Not that this is the greatest bulk 

 that the strawberry can attain, for "Myatt's Mammoth" 

 has been known to weigh nearly twice as much, but then 



