THE GRAPE VINE. 



3S9 



The common wood strawberry (wliicli was 

 probably the earliest cultivated) has the leaves 

 rather small, the runners (at the joints of which 

 the new plants are produced) slender, and often 

 of a purple colour. The fruit is small, and gen- 

 erally red, but without much flavour, owing to 

 its being shaded from the sun. When brought 

 out of the shade, or in countries where the in- 

 fluence of the sun is more powerful, botli its size 

 and flavour are very much improved ; and though 

 not the handsomest, it becomes far from the 

 worst of the cultivated sorts. There is a variety 

 of the wood strawberry a good deal paler, both 

 in the leaves and the fruit, than the one now 

 mentioned, which also' ripens later in the season; 

 but it is by no means productive, and is accord- 

 ingly not much cultivated. 



The Alpine strawbeiTy is, in its native situa- 

 tion, a more vigorous plant, and produces larger 

 and more highly flavoured fruit than the com- 

 mon one of the woods. It is often much darker 

 in the colour than any of the other strawberries; 

 and when it is so, the flavour has a sharpness 

 bordering upon austerity. Still, however, it is 

 an excellent fruit; and it has this advantage, 

 that it continues bearing from June until stopped 

 by the frost ; and, in very open seasons, frait 

 has been gathered from it at Christmas. 



The Hautbois was the first known of the larger 

 variety of strawberry. Its liistory has never 

 been well ascertained, though it is generally be- 

 lieved to be the mountain strawbeny of Bohe- 

 mia, and to have been first impi-oved by cultiva- 

 tion in France. The hautbois is very produc- 

 tive ; and the fruit is highly flavoured, with a 

 peculiar kind of perfume ; but some care is ne- 

 cessary in order to prevent the plants from de- 

 generating. The name of this strawbeny is pro- 

 bably derived from the circumstance of the scape 

 which bears the fruit standing higher than the 

 leaves, and, consequently, being called hautbois 

 (high wood). In the old gardening books it is 

 WTitten hautboy. 



In the early part of the last century, the Al- 

 pine strawbeny of Chili was introduced into the 

 Royal Gardens at Paris, and from thence found 

 its way over many parts of Europe. It grew to 

 an immense size, and had a finer colour than the 

 hautbois ; but in the southern countries of Eu- 

 rope it was soon neglected, because it ran greatly 

 to leaves, produced comparatively little fruit, 

 and what it did produce was deficient in flavour. 

 The "old scarlet strawberry," which was an ori- 

 ginal introduction from North America, has been 

 an inhabitant of our gardens for nearly two hun- 

 dred years. The "old black strawbeny," an 

 unproductive sort, has been long known in Eng- 

 land. The "Chinese" and the "Surinam" 

 strawberries are of considerableantiquityamongst 

 us. The " old pine, or Carolina," has been cul- 

 tivated and highly prized by the English growers. 



Since attention began to be paid to the cultura 

 of strawberries, the number of varieties has been 

 greatly increased. The British strawberries are 

 divided into scarlet, black, pine, hautbois, green, 

 alpine, and wood, according to a classification in 

 a valuable paper in the sixth volume of the Hor- 

 ticultural Transactions. Of these varieties the 

 pine is the most esteemed. It is a native of 

 Louisiana and of Virginia. Its colour is a deep 

 red on both sides ; and it is the most rich and 

 highly flavoured of all strawberries, constituting 

 the most valuable variety that has yet been dis- 

 covered. 



Strawberry plants multiply spontaneously 

 every summer, as well by suckers from the pa- 

 rent stem, as by numerous runners, all of which 

 rooting and forming a plant at every joint, re- 

 quire only removal to a bed where there is room 

 for them to flourish. Each of these separately 

 planted bears a fine fniit the following season, 

 and will bear in full perfection the second sum- 

 mer. A plantation of the alpine yields fruit the 

 same year that it is made. The wood and the 

 alpine grow readily from seed, and bear a finer 

 fruit than that from off'sets. The other kinds, 

 however, are regularly propagated from offsets. 



Strawberries require a deep, soil, and manure 

 not much rotted. A bank, exposed to the sun, 

 or freely exposed beds, are most suited for all 

 the sorts, except the alpine and wood, which re- 

 quire shaded situations. They may either be 

 planted in beds or borders. The plants are to be 

 kept clean, and the suckers cut away frequently. 

 The whole plants ai-e to be renewed every fourth 

 or fifth year ; some, however, renew the plants 

 every year. A strawberry wall may be made 

 of loose stones or bricks, three to four feet wide, 

 and sloping upwards two to three feet ; the in- 

 terior is filled up with soil, and the strawberries 

 planted outside. 



CHAP. XXXV. 



THE GKAPE, MULBERRY, CURRANT, GOOSKBERRY, 

 BARBERRY, &C. 



Tub Grape Vine, Cvitis vini/era.J This 

 celebrated plant belongs to the natural family 

 ■einiferm, of which it is the principal and typical 

 genus; and to the class pentandria, order mono- 

 gynia of Linna;us. It is a trailing, deciduous, 

 hardy shrub, with large, elegantly shaped leaves, 

 and producing flowers in the form of a raceme, 

 of a gi-eenish white colour, and fragrant odour; 

 appearing in the open air in this country in June, 

 and the fruit, which is of the berry kind, attains 

 such maturity as the season and situation admit 

 by the middle or end of September. 



The grape is of a globular, ovate, nr oblong 



