CHAPTER IV. 



STRAWBERRIES : THE FIVE SPECIES AND THEIR HISTORY. 



THE conscientious Diedrich Knickerbocker, that vener- 

 ated historian from whom all good citizens of New 

 York obtain the first impressions of their ancestry, felt that 

 he had no right to chronicle the vicissitudes of Manhattan 

 Island until he had first accounted for the universe of which 

 it is a part. Equally with the important bit of land named, 

 the strawberry belongs to the existing cosmos, and might 

 be traced back to "old chaos." I hasten to re-assure the 

 dismayed reader. I shall not presume to follow one who 

 could illumine his page with genius, and whose extensive 

 learning enabled him to account for the universe not merely 

 in one but in half a dozen ways. 



It is the tendency of the present age to ask what is, not 

 what has been or shall be. And yet, on the part of some, 

 as they deliberately enjoy a saucer of strawberries and cream, 

 — it is a pleasure that we prolong for obvious reasons, — a 

 languid curiosity may arise as to the origin and history of 

 so delicious a fruit. I suppose Mr. Darwin would say, " it 

 was evolved." But some specimens between our lips sug- 

 gest that a Geneva watch- could put itself together quite as 

 readily. At the same time, it must be said that our " rude 

 forefathers" did not eat Monarch or Charles Downing 

 strawberries. In few fruits, probably, have there been such 

 vast changes or improvements as in this. Therefore, I shall 

 answer briefly and as well as I can, in view of the meagre 



