CHAPTER XV 

 What Is the American Strawberry? 



The strawberry has only received much 

 attention during the last seventy-five or one 

 hundred years. The first variety of which 

 we have any account is the Fressant, which 

 dates from 1660. There are but few wild 

 species of strawberries, and only some few of 

 these ten or twelve species have been brought 

 into cultivation. 



The European common wild strawberry 

 includes both the Annual and Monthly 

 Alpines, as well as the White and Red Wood 

 strawberries. The former are indigenous to 

 North America, being found quite plenti- 

 fully from the east northern states, also 

 westward to the Rocky Mountains, where 

 they grow in the cooler regions and on the 

 more elevated places. These Alpines do 

 not produce runners to any extent, but grow 

 in stools or clumps. The fruit produced 

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