Strawberries Origin and History. 



35 



distinct species. The first, and for a long time the only one of which we 

 have any record, is the Fragaria Vesca, or the Alpine strawberry. It is 

 one of the most widely spread fruits 

 of the world, for it grows, and for 

 centuries has grown, wild through- 

 out Northern and Central Europe 

 and Asia, following the mountains 

 far to the south ; and on this conti- 

 nent, from time immemorial, the 

 Indian children have gathered it 

 from the Northern Atlantic to the 

 Pacific. In England this species 

 exhibits some variation from the 



Alpine type, and was called by our ancestors the Wood strawberry. The 

 chief difference between the two is in the form of the fruit, the Wood 

 varieties being round and the Alpine conical. They are also subdivided 

 into white and red, annual and monthly varieties, and those that produce 

 no runners, which are known to-day as Bush Alpines. 



The Alpine, as we find it growing wild, was the strawberry of the 

 ancients. It is to it that the suggestive lines of Virgil refer, 



" Ye boys that gather flowers and strawberries, 

 Lo, hid within the grass an adder lies." 



The Alpine Strawberry ( Fragaria Vesca). 



J.FRANK JIMGLIG-SE 



There is no proof, I believe, that the strawberry was cultivated during 

 any of the earlier civilizations. Some who wrote most explicitly con- 



