XXV.] INTRODUCTION OF THE CHILIAN BERRY. 403 



which time Barnet* wrote enthusiastically of it. 

 "This" [the Old Scarlet Strawberry], he says, "which 

 has been an inhabitant of our gardens nearly, if not 

 fully, two hundred years, was doubtless an original 

 introduction from North America. It is singular that 

 a kind of so much excellence as to be at present 

 scarcely surpassed by any of its class should have 

 been the first known. It continued in cultivation 

 considerably more than half of the period of its 

 existence as a garden fruit without any variety hav- 

 ing been produced of it, either by seed or by impor- 

 tation from America." Yet Barnet knew twenty -six 

 good varieties of the species, and describes them at 

 length ; and four of them seem to have come directly 

 from America, probably from wild plants. A con- 

 siderable progress had been made in the amelioration 

 of the strawberry in England at the opening of the 

 century, therefore, from the Virginian stock or foun- 

 dation ; but the varieties were much alike, and con- 

 tain little promise of the wonderful development in 

 the strawberry varieties which we now enjoy. 



About 1712, a second species of strawberry reached 

 Europe. This is the Fragaria Chiloensis, brought 

 from Chile to Marseilles by Capt. Frezier. It reached 

 England in 1727. It is a stout, thick-leaved, shaggy 

 plant, which bore a large globular or somewhat 

 pointed late, dark -colored fruit. In a few places, 

 particularly about Brest, in France, it came to be 

 cultivated for its fruit ; but in general it met with 

 small favor, particularly as the flowers were often 

 imperfect and it did not fertilize itself. It did not 

 seem to vary much under cultivation ; at least, when 



* Trans. London Hort. Soc. vi 152 (1824). 



