402 THE SURVIVAL OF THE UNLIKE. [XXV. 



quiry. These belong to three or four species native 

 to Europe, chiefly to Fragaria vesca and F. moschata 

 (F. elatior) , and the botanical characters are suf- 

 ficiently clear and uniform to allow of little doubt 

 as to their origin. The first strawberries, like the 

 Fressant, are of this type. These European types 

 are mostly small and delicate fruits, which are grown 

 in France and some other parts of continental Eu- 

 rope, but which are little more than curiosities in 

 England and America. It is the class of large 

 American and English strawberries to which I now 

 wish to direct attention, a type which, while grown 

 in all temperate countries, seems to have first come 

 to great prominence in England, and which is the 

 only market strawberry of America. 



The first foreign strawberry to reach Europe was 

 the common small species of eastern America, and 

 which is known to botanists as Fragaria Virginian a. 

 The first distinct record of it in Europe is in 1624, 

 when it was mentioned by Jean and Vespasien Robin, 

 gardeners to Louis XIII. For more than a century 

 it appears not to have taken on any new or striking 

 forms. It bore a small, bright scarlet berry, with a 

 distinct constriction or neck near the stem and 

 slightly acid flesh. It was in no way very different, 

 probably, from the common wild strawberry which 

 we now pick in the fields. It was never greatly 

 esteemed on the continent, but in England it found 

 greater favor. Duchesne writes of it, in 1766, that 

 'they still cultivate it in England with favor" (avec 

 honneur). The original form of the Scarlet or Vir- 

 ginian strawberry was still highly esteemed in Eng- 

 land less than three-quarters of a century ago, at 



