Strawberries. 95 



stamens. In the true wild strawberry, on the other 

 hand, the petals are usually larger, rounder, and purer 

 white, the flowers open into a wide saucer shape, and 

 there is no yellow or red in the centre of the blossom. 

 Perhaps one may best account for these changes by 

 supposing that the true strawberry has still further pro- 

 gressed in insect fertilisation. This would sufficiently 

 explain the purer white of the petals and the loss of 

 such relics of the primitive yellow hue as still re- 

 mained in the barren strawberry. But it is also pro- 

 bable, I think, that the barren strawberries represent 

 the remnants of the old ancestral race which have 

 not yet been lived down by the newer strawberry 

 type, but which are gradually undergoing progressive 

 degradation ; hence their half-opened flowers — often 

 self-fertilised— their smaller and degenerate petals, 

 and their general unattractiveness of outward appear- 

 ance. It is difficult to compare the blossom of a true 

 wild strawberry with that of a barren strawberry with- 

 out immediately catching the obvious suggestion that 

 the one is going upward towards higher development 

 and the other downward towards general degeneracy. 

 In some other respects the strawberry plant 

 equally shows itself the nobler species of the two. 

 Its leaves are usually larger and more erect, its stem 

 taller and straighter, its root-stock less fluffy and 



