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THE 
AMERICAN NATURALIST 
Vor. XXVIII. April, 1894. 328 
WHENCE CAME THE CULTIVATED STRAWBERRY ? 
By L H. Binar. 
The strawberry has been extensively cultivated only during 
the last century, and the earliest attempt at methodical amelio- 
ration extends back little more than two hundred years. The 
first horticultural variety of which we have any account is the 
Fressant, which dates from 1660. The wild species of straw- 
berries are few, not numbering more than a dozen under the 
most liberal estimate, and they are well represented in the 
great herbaria or botanical centers of the world. Only a part 
of the wild types have been impressed into cultivation, and 
exact or very approximates dates can be given for the intro- 
duction of these cultivated species. 
The strawberry, therefore, is a modern fruit, and its history 
and evolution would seem to possess no difficulties; and yet, 
despite all these facts, the botanical origin of the cultivated 
varieties is unknown, and we have the anomaly of a common 
fruit, appearing within little more than a century, which the 
botanist does not refer to any species. Here, then, is a most 
remarkable instance of the evolution of a new type of plant, 
taking place under our very eyes: whilst the botanists have 
written precise histories of its successive progresses, the reasons 
and methods of its development have escaped them. Perhaps 
there is no other plant which has so quickly obscured its own 
Lecture before the Author's class in Horticulture, Cornell Univ., Ithaca, New York. 
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