136 THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA 



posed to have been derived, is especially tender. F. 

 virginiana, on the other hand, is decidedly hardy. It 

 grows close up to the snow line. It withstands temper- 

 atures of forty degrees below zero and survives even the 

 extreme conditions on our northwestern prairies. It has 

 been used recently by Hansen to breed greater hardiness 

 into some of the common varieties, with marked results, 

 so far as this one attribute is concerned. Modern English 

 varieties are distinctly inferior to American varieties in 

 hardiness. The race of strawberries that has developed 

 in North America since the introduction of the Hovey, 

 however, is sufficiently hardy to succeed under commercial 

 culture in all parts of the continent except where climatic 

 conditions are unusually trying, as in the Dakotas, Minne- 

 sota, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. It is difficult to 

 conceive that a pure form of F. chiloensis could have 

 acquired this remarkable degree of hardiness, so foreign 

 to its nature in the wild, within so short a period. It is 

 much more likely that the greater hardiness of North 

 American varieties, as compared with English sorts, is 

 due to a larger admixture of the more hardy species. 



There are other characters of modern varieties, both in 

 plant and fruit, that indicate a mixed origin. Some varie- 

 ties show the division of the crown, the smooth, thin 

 leaves, the deep-feeding, wiry roots and red flesh of F. 

 virginiana; others show the undivided crowns, thick 

 downy leaves, shallow-feeding, fleshy roots, very long 

 root stalks and white flesh of F. chiloensis. 



An argument for the hybrid origin of the garden straw- 

 berry is found in the record of pure F. chiloensis under 

 cultivation. Although this species has been grown in 

 Europe for two centuries, it has produced but few varieties 

 and none of these has been found worthy of general culti- 



