STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 275 



five inches about;" Plat, 1653, as two inches about in bigness; Vaillant, 1727, as an inch 

 and sometimes more in diameter. It remained for Frezier, who discovered Fragaria 

 chiloensis, and brought it to Europe in 17 12, to describe fruit as of the size of a walnut, 

 sometimes as large as an egg; and Burbridge, a recent writer, says that in the Equatorial 

 Andes, in the province of Ambato, there are strawberries growing wild, equal in size and 

 flavor to some of our best varieties. 



The strawberry plant is variable in nature, and it seems probable that the type of 

 all the vari^ies noted under cultivation may be found in the wild plant, if diligently 

 sought for. In the Maine fields there are plants of Fragaria vesca with roundish, as well 

 as elongated fruit; of Fragaria virginiana with roundish berries and elongated berries, 

 with berries having a distinct neck and those not necked; of a deep red, scarlet, and palish 

 color; with large fruit and small fruit; with large growth and small growth, according to 

 the fertility of the soil. 



As to color of fruit, white strawberries, to be referred to Fragaria vesca, are mentioned 

 by Ruellius, 1536, and by a host of following writers. Peck has found white berries of 

 this species about Skaneateles, New York. A white-fruited variety of F. virginiana is 

 noted by Dewey as abundant in the eastern portion of Berkshire County, Massachusetts. 

 Molina records that the Chile strawberry, Fragaria chiloensis, in Chile has red, white, and 

 yellow-fruited varieties, and Frezier, who introduced the species to Europe in 1 7 1 2 , calls 

 the fruit pale red. Gmelin in his Flora Sibirica, 1768, mentions three varieties of Fragaria 

 vesca; one with a larger flower and fruit, one with white fruit; a third with winged petioles 

 and berries an inch long. This last variety seems to answer to those forms of strawberry 

 plants occasionally found among the seedlings at the New York Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, which have extra leaflets upon the stem of the petiole. Five-leaved strawberry 

 plants are noted by many of the early writers; an account of such plants may also be 

 found in the Report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station for 1877. 



Variegated-leaved forms are named by Toumefort, 17 19, and a niunber of varieties 

 by Mawe in 1778. Such forms were also noted among the seedling Alpines at the New 

 York Station in 1887. Don, in his History of Dichlamydeous Plants, 1832, describes 

 Fragaria vesca as varying into red, white, and black fruit, as without runners, as double 

 flowered, as with stamens transformed into flowers, as without petals and with foliaceous 

 sepals; F. majaufea Duch., as varying into green, red, and purple fruit; F. breslingea Duch., 

 as having varieties with usually five-lobed leaves; F. elatior as possessing a curled-leaved 

 form; F. grandiflora as furnishing a variegated-leaved form; and F. chiloensis as having 

 red-fleshed and white-fleshed fruit. Among the variations to be also noted is that of 

 losing all its leaves in winter ascribed to the F. viridis Weston, and the twice-bearing habit 

 of the Alpines, F. vesca Linn., var. a. 



The earliest cultivated variety with a distinct nomenclature seems to be the Le 

 Chapiron, of the Gallobelgians, a variety with a large, pale-colored berry, so named by 

 Lobel, in 1576, and called by him Chapiton in the index to his Icones, 1591. (The Capiton 

 of Toumefort, 17 19, seems to correspond to the modem Hautbois class.) The name, 

 Le Capiton, occurs also in the Hortus Regius Parisiis, 1665. It is quite probable that 

 the Caprons mentioned by Quintinye in 1672, are the same or a similar variety, as both 

 kinds are to be referred to Fragaria elatior Ehrh. 



