THE CANADIAN IIORllCULTURIST. 65 



AN ABEIDGED FOUIl HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY OF THE 



STRAWBERRY. 



BY CHARLES ARNOLD, PARLS, ONT. 



Sliakspeare informs us that the Bishop of Ely's garden in Holborn 

 was distinguished for the excellent strawberries it produced, even as 

 far back as the reign of Richard the Third (1483). And judging from 

 the remarks of an old writer in 1578, it would appear that the only 

 strawberries known at that time were the Wool strawberry and perhaps 

 the White Alpine. He says, "Strawberries grow in shadowy woods 

 and deep trenches, and banks by highway sides. They be also much 

 planted in gardens. The fruit is green at lirst, but red when it is ripe. 

 Sometimes also you shall tind them verry white when they be ripe ; in 

 taste and savour very pleasant." Another old writer in 1597 speaks 

 of the " Red and White Wood and the Green Fruited ; the two last 

 not to be found save only in gardens." Johnson, in his edition of the 

 work containing the last statement^ published in 1633, does not mention 

 any other variety. Another writer in. 1656 mentions the Virginia 

 Scarlet (or Canada) and the Bohemian. This last variety is supposed 

 to be the Hautbois, and lie says, " this variety hath been with us but 

 of late days, and is the goodliest and the greatest." 



It would seem that up to this time no attempt had been made to 

 grow new varieties from seed or from crossing the different kinds. 

 And no mention is made up to this period, so far as I have been able 

 to read, of strawberries being imperfect in their flowers, except when 

 attempts were made to grow them under glass. Then some gardeners 

 used to complain bitterly of their strawberries " running blind," as 

 they called it. 



The first improvement made by growing strawberries from seed 

 was about the year 1660, a variety called at lirst the Clapperon, and 

 grown by a person by the name of Fressant, a Frenchman. This 

 variety was obtained from the seed of the Wood strawberry. 



But little attention seems to have been paid to growing improved 

 varieties by hybridizing until the time of Andrew Knight, about the 

 beginning of the present century. In order to show wliat confused 

 ideas occupied some men's minds with regard to strawberry blossoms, 

 and to show also what progress has been made the last forty years iu 



