Strawberries. 



97 



split up into any very marked or distinctive separate 

 species. Still they have even now assumed several 

 minor forms, worthy at least to be distinguished as 

 nameable varieties. The most divergent of these, as 

 might be expected, is the Chilian pine strawberry, for 

 in the southern hemisphere the imported strawberry, 

 carried over at first, no doubt, by some weather- 

 driven bird, has found itself in the midst of a very 

 different environment from that which surrounds it in 

 the hedgerows and meadows of its European home : 

 and to this environment it has had to adapt itself in 

 several minor but obvious particulars. An almost 

 equally distinct variety is the white Alpine straw- 

 berry, which has quite lost the native blushing rud- 

 diness of the lowland fruit. Curiously different in 

 another way is the hautboy, a taller plant, with fewer 

 and larger blossoms and a richer flavour, chiefly dis- 

 tinguished by the separation of its sexes on distinct 

 plants, for here the stamens grow on one vine, and the 

 pistils, or embryo fruits, on another. In order to 

 make the berries swell and ripen, it is necessary to 

 plant both sorts together, and then the fertilising 

 insects unconsciously carry the pollen from the stamin- 

 ate flowers to the sensitive surface of their pistillate 

 neighbours, and so assist the efforts of the gardener 

 in setting the fruit. In the great American market 



