STRAWBERRIES 63 



of one boy or girl having so inferior a look that it 

 does not seem possible they could have been filled 

 from the same vines with certain others. But nei- 

 ther blunt fingers nor blunt eyes are hard to find; 

 and as there are those who can see nothing clearly, 

 so there are those who can touch nothing deftly or 

 gently. 



The cultivation of the strawberry is thought to be 

 comparatively modern. The ancients appear to have 

 been a carnivorous race : they gorged themselves with 

 meat ; while the modern man makes larger and larger 

 use of fruits and vegetables, until this generation is 

 doubtless better fed than any that has preceded it. 

 The strawberry and the apple, and such vegetables 

 as celery, ought to lengthen human life, at least 

 to correct its biliousness and make it more sweet and 

 sanguine. 



The first impetus to strawberry culture seems to 

 have been given by the introduction of our field 

 berry (Fragaria Virginiana) into England in the 

 seventeenth century, though not much progress was 

 made till the eighteenth. This variety is much more 

 fragrant and aromatic than the native berry of Eu- 

 rope, though less so in that climate than when grown 

 here. Many new seedlings sprang from it, and it 

 was the prevailing berry in English and French gar- 

 dens, says Fuller, until the South American species, 

 grandiflora, was introduced and supplanted it. This 

 berry is naturally much larger and sweeter, and bet- 

 ter adapted to the English climate, than our Virgin- 

 iana. Hence the English strawberries of to-day 



