STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 279 



Kinds Named. 



1829. Noisette Man. Jard 28 



1832. Don Hist. Dichl. Pis 112 



1856. Downing Fruits, Fruit Trees oj America 36 



1865. Pardee Strawberry Culture 42 



1866. Downing Fruits, Fruit Trees of America 106 



1867. Fuller Small Fruit Culturist 248 



1869. Knox Fruit Farm and Nursery Cat 15 



1870. Jvlerrick Strawberry Culture 813 



1877. Gregg Fruit Culture 42 



1883. Vilmorin Les Plantes Potagkres 58 



1885. Thomas Fruit Culturist 135 



1887. American Pomological Society 41 



The modem varieties under American culture have usually large berries with more 

 or less stmken seeds, with the trusses lower than the leaves, and seem to belong mostly 

 to the species represented in nature by Fragaria virginiana, although they are supposed 

 hybridizations with Fragaria chiloensis, and, in the higher-flavored class, with Fragaria 

 elatior. Certain it is that, in growing seedlings from our improved varieties, reversions 

 often occur to varieties referable to the Hautbois and Chilean sorts, from which hybrid- 

 ization can be inferred. One notes as of common occurrence that seedlings from high- 

 flavored varieties are very likely to furnish some plants of the Hautbois class, and even 

 scarcely, if at all, distinguishable from named varieties of the Hautbois with which there 

 has been opportunity for close comparison. From large-berried varieties of diminished 

 flavor, and which occasionally throw hollowed berries, the reversion occasionally produces 

 plants unmistakably of the Chilean type. In other cases we have noticed reversions to 

 forms of Fragaria vesca. 



These circumstances all lead towards establishing the mingled parentage of our 

 varieties imder cultivation, and render the classification of cultivated varieties somewhat 

 difficult. Vilmorin seems to have separated varieties into natural groupings under the 

 headings: Wood strawberries, Fragaria vesca Linn.; Alpine strawberries, Fragaria alpina 

 Pers.; Short-runnered Fragaria collina Ehrh. ; Hautbois, Fragaria elatior Ehrh.; Scarlet, 

 Fragaria virginiana Ehrh.; Chile, Fragaria chiloensis Duch.; Pineapple, Fragaria 

 grandiflora Ehrh., and Hybrid {Fragaria hybrida) f Under the latter distribution, 

 to which he does not venture the Latin nomenclatvu-e, he does not recognize sxifficient 

 identity of character for general description, but one may well believe that an extended 

 acquaintance with varieties will enable a description to be formulated which will make 

 of this group a species by convenience, or, otherwise expressed, a historical species, with 

 a number of subspecies (for convenience) which shall simplify the question of arrange- 

 ment and which will enable us to secure a quicker identification of varieties. 



The changes which have been produced, or have appeared tmder cultivation, seem 

 comparatively few. i. Increased size of plant. Yet in nature we find variability in this 

 respect, arising from greater or less fertility or favoring character of the soil and exposure. 

 This increase of size seems also in a measure to have become hereditary. 2. Increased 

 size of berry. In nature we find variability in this respect. All analogical reasoning 

 justifies the belief that this gain may arise through heredity influenced by long series 



