96 Flowers and their Pedig7^ees. 



not so creeping. Moreover, if it really descended 

 from the white potentilla, or from some closely allied 

 common ancestor, it has certainly far outstripped ity 

 progenitor in the race for the possession of the 

 world, for the white potentilla, or barren strawberry, 

 is apparently a strictly European species, found from 

 Sweden and Ireland to the Crimea and the Caucasus, 

 but the true strawberry is a much more cosmopolitan 

 plant, being found in almost all the temperate regions 

 of the world, from Siberia and Scotland to Van- 

 couver's Land, and from the Arctic Regions to the 

 Andes of Chili. This is quite what one would expect 

 under the circumstances ; for while the seed-like fruits 

 of the white potentilla could only fall on the ground 

 close to the mother plant, and so could disperse 

 themselves very slowly over a single continent, the 

 little nuts of the strawberry could be carried by birds 

 from land to land, across the severing ocean or the 

 intervening tropical region. Thus the old degenerate 

 type is now apparently dying out in northern and 

 western Europe ; but the progressive and advancing 

 strawberry is making its way steadily, like a colon- 

 ising race, round the entire girdle of the two tem- 

 perate regions. 



The strawberries are, as yet, it would seem, a 

 relatively new race, and so they have not, so far, 



