474 GENERAL REVIEW. 



S.), at near 9000 feet, and in a mean temperature of 60 ; 

 where, however, the thermometer does sometimes descend, 

 perhaps half-a-dozen times in the year, to the freezing-point in 

 the early morning, scarcely ever on two successive days." 



Fragaria monophylla, which has single leaves instead of 

 ternate or trifoliate ones (see ' Botanical Magazine,' t. 63 ; also 

 Duchesne, 'Hist. Nat. des Frais,'p. 124), appears to have been 

 originally raised by Duchesne at Versailles, in the year 1761, 

 from seeds of the Wood Strawberry. The fruits are oblong, 

 larger than the last-named. 



By cultivating the European Alpine varieties, Strawberries 

 may be had from June until September ; and by cross-breeding 

 these with other varieties, the fruit might be much improved in 

 size and flavour. 



The Strawberry is one of the easiest of all plants to propa- 

 gate ; indeed it rapidly propagates itself, by means of young 

 plants produced by its "runners." These are either allowed 

 to root into the soil, and then dug up and planted, or layered 

 on pots of earth, by placing the young plant on the surface of 

 the compost, and securing it with a stone or small peg ; but 

 a stone is best, as it preserves a certain amount of moisture 

 around the young plant, and so enables it to root more quickly. 

 New varieties are only to be obtained from seed, and careful 

 crossing or hybridising is the surest way of producing improved 

 forms ; although chance seminal variation now and then gives 

 improved varieties in these, as in other fruits. Cross-fertilisa- 

 tion is best carried on by growing the plants in pots, under a 

 frame or in a cool propagating-pit, as they are then more easily 

 protected from the influence of foreign pollen. 



The seed can be separated from the pulp by paring it off as 

 thinly as possible, and then rubbing it in dry clean sand to 

 separate it, after which it should be sown at once in well- 

 drained pans or boxes of moist sandy earth, and placed in 

 a moderately warm temperature of 6o-7o, until it germi- 

 nates, after which place the pans on a sunny shelf in a 

 greenhouse or vinery from which frost is excluded, until they 

 are large enough to prick off into beds of light rich earth 

 in the open air, which will be about May or June. Some 

 prefer to keep the seed until the spring, and in this case bury 

 the fruit in a box of sand, and rub sand and seeds up to- 

 gether, and sow in boxes, or else pare off the seeds as before 

 advised, and then separate the seeds from the pulp by rubbing 

 in a fine clean cloth. The seed can be preserved in a box, or, 

 better still, place it in a small bottle, and cork securely, and 

 sow in pans in heat in the spring say, February so as to get 



