Chap. X. STRAWBERRIES. 373 



their rapid improvement within the last fifty or sixty years. Let 

 any one compare the fruit of one of the largest varieties exhibited 

 at our Shows with that of the wild wood strawberry, or, which 

 will be a fairer comparison, with the somewhat larger fruit of the 

 wild American Virginian Strawberry, and he will see what prodigies 

 horticulture has effected. 100 The number of varieties has likewise 

 increased in a surprisingly rapid manner. Only three kinds were 

 known in France, in 1746, where this fruit was early cultivated. 

 In 1766 five species had been introduced, the same which are now 

 cultivated, but only five varieties of Fragaria vesca, with some 

 sub-varieties, had been produced. At the present day the varieties 

 of the several s]3ecies are almost innumerable. The species consist 

 of, firstly, the wood or Alpine cultivated strawberries, descended 

 from F. vesca, a native of Europe and of North America. There 

 are eight wild European varieties, as ranked by Duchesne, of 

 F. vesca, but several of these are considered species by some 

 botanists. Secondly, the green strawberries, descended from the 

 European F. colina, and little cultivated in England. Thirdly, 

 the Hautbois, from the European F. elatior. Fourthly, the Scarlets, 

 descended from F. virginiana, a native of the whole breadth of 

 North America. Fifthly, the Chili, descended from F. chiloensis, 

 an inhabitant ot the west coast of the temperate parts both of 

 North and South America. Lastly, the pines or Carolinas (including 

 the old Blacks), which have been ranked by most authors under 

 the name of F. grandiflora as a distinct species, said to inhabit 

 Surinam ; but this is a manifest error. This form is considered 

 by the highest authority, M. Gay, to be merely a strongly marked 

 race of F. chiloensis™ 1 These five or six forms have been ranked 

 by most botanists as specifically distinct ; but this may be doubted, 

 for Andrew Knight, 102 who raised no less than 400 crossed straw- 

 berries, asserts that the F. virginiana, chiloensis and grandiflora 

 " may be made to breed together indiscriminately," and he found, 

 in accordance with the principle of analogous variation, "that 

 similiar varieties could be obtained from the seeds of any one of 

 them." 



Since Knight's time there is abundant and additional evidence 103 

 of the extent to which the American forms spontaneously cross. 

 AVe owe indeed to such crosses most of our choicest existing 



100 "Most {if the largest cultivated of F. vesca, or our common wood- 

 strawberries are the descendants of F. strawberry. 



grandiflora or chiloensis, and I have 101 'Le Fraisier,' par le Comte L. de 



seen no account of these forms in Lambertye, 1864, p. 50. 

 their wild state. Methuen's Scarlet 102 ' Transact. Hort. Soc.,' vol. iii. 



(Downing, ' Fruits,' p. 527) has 1820, p. 207. 



" immense fruit of the largest size," ao3 See an account by Prof. Decaisns, 



and belongs to the section descended and by others in ' Gardener's Chron- 



from F. virginiana ; and the fruit of icle,' 1862, p 335, and 1858, p. 172 ; 



this species, as I hear from Prof. A. and Mr. Barnet's paper in ' Hort, 



Gray, is only a little larger than that Soc. Transact.,' vol. vi. 1826, p. 170. 



