52 The Strawberry Book. 
native wild strawberries have a delicious aroma, which is 
wholly absent in many of the largest kinds. 
Some varieties have a brisk, refreshing, vinous juice, 
others are simply juicy and sweet, while some are sweet, 
dry, and almost juiceless. In the first class we might put 
the Duc de Malakoff, Vineuse de Nantes, and La Con- 
stante among foreign kinds, and the Hovey, President 
Wilder, and Lennig’s White among native varieties; in 
the second class we might put Marguerite and Bijou; and 
of the third, the Austin, as I have seen it, and Madame 
Collonge among foreign kinds, are excellent ‘Tepresenta- : 
tives. 
The flavor and taste of most varieties of strawberries. 
are necessarily sz generis, and incapable of exact descrip- 
tion, or comparison with other fruits. The exquisite taste 
of a Brooklyn Scarlet or of a Rivers’s Eliza cannot be set 
forth in words any easier than the flavor of a Beurré 
d’Anjou pear or a Northern Spy apple. 
In the market, size and color rule. At the table of the 
amateur, size and color both come into consideration, but" 
are subordinate to flavor. Many a grower raises for sale 
large crops of berries, like the Wilson, which he himself 
does not deign to eat, having his own private bed of Len- 
nig’s White or Hovey, or some still rarer kind, to supply 
himself and his family. In fact, I know dealers who, in 
conversation upon strawberries, always make a wide dis- 
tinction between berries that are good to sell and those 
that are good to eat. * 
The education of the public taste is only a question of 
time. Already there are some slight indications of im- 
provement. The public has found that Hovey’s Seedling 
is better than the Wilson ; and La Constante, Triomphe de 
Gand, and Jucunda have been promoted from amateur to 
market varieties. Yet, to be strictly correct, we might 
perhaps add, that the enormous size to which the last- 
named variety can be grown, has, probably, had much to. 
