138 THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA 



species, and of their behavior under cultivation and hy- 

 bridization, is necessary to establish with certainty the 

 origin of the garden form. This has not yet been given, 

 but the presumption is strong, from the foregoing evidence, 

 that both the Chilean and Virginian species are rep- 

 resented in modern varieties. 



ORIGIN OF THE EVERBEARERS 



The search for varieties that are consistently everbearing 

 in the North has been long, and fraught with repeated 

 disappointment. The first everbearing strawberry worthy 

 of the name was the Alpine, also called the Alpine Per- 

 petual and Monthly Alpine. This takes its name from 

 the Alps Mountains of Europe, where it is indigenous. 

 It is said to have been introduced into France and England 

 about 1764, but it had been known for at least 200 years 

 previous. Duchesne, writing in 1766, says: "The King 

 of England was understood to have received the first 

 seed from Turin. It was such a rarity that a pinch of 

 the seed sold for a guinea." At that time the Alpine was 

 supposed to be a distinct species ; now it is classed as a 

 form of the Wood strawberry, F. vesca. The only differ- 

 ence between the Wood and the Alpine is that the fruit 

 of the latter is pointed instead of round, and the plant 

 bears more or less continuously from April to November. 

 Usually, the Wood bears but once a year, in the spring, 

 but some seasons it shows a tendency towards fall fruit- 

 ing. The essential difference between single-bearing and 

 everbearing sorts may be found in their anatomical struc- 

 ture. The latter produces flowering stems from the 

 axils of some of the leaves on the main stem, instead of 

 runners. According to Henri de Vilmorin, the everbearing 



