XXV. 



WHENCE CAME THE CULTIVATED 

 STRAWBERRY?' 



The strawberry has been extensively cultivated 

 only during the last century, and the earliest attempt 

 at methodical amelioration extends back little more 

 than two hundred years. The first horticultural 

 variety of which we have any account is the 

 Fressant, which dates from 1660. The wild spe^ 

 cies of strawberries are few, not numbering more 

 than a dozen under the most liberal estimate, and 

 they are well represented in the great herbaria or 

 botanical centers of the world. Only a part of the 

 wild types have been impressed into cultivation, and 

 exact or very approximate dates can be given for the 

 introduction of these cultivated species. 



The strawberry, therefore, is a modern fruit, and 

 its history and evolution would seem to possess no 

 difficulties; and yet, despite all these facts, the botan- 

 ical origin of the cultivated varieties is unknown, and 

 we have the anomaly of a common fruit, appearing 

 within little more than a century, which the bota- 

 nist does not refer to any species. Here, then, is a 

 most remarkable instance of the evolution of a new 



» Lecture before the Author's class in Horticulture. Printed in American 

 Naturalist, xxviii. 293. (April, 1894.) 



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