164 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMElNT STATION. I906. 



that many of the now most important fruits were not only- 

 unheard of but were not thought of, as cultivated plants, within 

 the memory of those now living. The improvement of native 

 types has in nearly every case been the result of necessity rather 

 than choice. 



The introduction of fruits from Russia and from China and 

 Japan, together with the accidental and systematic crosses 

 between these and the native species and older domesticated 

 types, has not only widely extended the range of fruit growing 

 in this country, but has given a new impetus to the study of 

 fruits and to the production of important forms to meet special 

 requirements. The development of a few of these more 

 important types may be profitably considered. 



THE STRAWBERRY. 



The strawberry has been under cultivation for centuries, but 

 systematic attempts at improvement are of comparatively recent 

 date, extending back a little more than 200 years in Europe and 

 only about half a century in America. The earliest horticul- 

 tural variety of which there is any account is the Fressant which 

 dates from 1660. Wild species of strawberry are few in num- 

 ber, certainly not more than a dozen, and only a part of these 

 wild forms have ever been brought into cultivation. Neverthe- 

 less, so wide has been the variation under cultivation that at the 

 present time there is the anomaly of a fruit, appearing within a 

 little more than a century, which the botanist does not refer to 

 any species. Here then is a remarkable and practical example 

 of experimental evolution. The history of this evolution has 

 been fully worked out by Bailey, and a few brief notes of his 

 investigations are given in this connection.* 



The systematic improvement of the strawberry began in 

 England. The first foreign species to reach Europe was 

 Fragaria virginiana, the common field species of New England 

 and the whole Atlantic coast. This is recorded in 1624, but does 

 not appear to have varied greatly, and never found favor on the 

 continent. In England, however, it was more highly esteemed, 

 and after a lapse of 2 centuries — in 1824 — Barnet writes enthu- 

 siastically " This (the old scarlet strawberry) was doubtless an 



* Survival of the Unlike ; also American Naturalist, 28, 293. 



