ON THE STRAWBERRY 



strawberry ripening, but berries continue to ripen, 

 even if less profusely, month after month. 



Doubtless this habit of perpetual bearing is a 

 trait brought out by the mingling of so many racial 

 strains; in particular by the union of races from 

 the two hemispheres. The summer of Chili is of 

 course our winter. I have several times adverted 

 to the confusion that seems to overtake many 

 plants when brought to our northern latitudes 

 from the southern hemisphere. 



The case of some of the New Zealand apples, 

 which were confused as to time of bearing for 

 two or tliree years after being imported, will be 

 recalled. 



Also the case of the winter rhubarb, which 

 came to be a perpetual bearer partly through the 

 influence of such transplantation. 



The new hybrid strawberry, which combines 

 ancestral strains from the two hemispheres, fur- 

 nishes another illustration of the tendency to re- 

 tain ancestral habits as to time of fruiting, and 

 thus, where parents from both hemispheres are 

 involved, to develop among some of their seedlings 

 a new habit of perpetual bearing. 



It will probably be possible, by further selection 

 from the new race of all-the-summer bearing 

 strawberries, to extend their time of fruiting, as 

 was done with the winter rhubarb^ until they bear 



[99] 



