6 STRAW BERRIES 
these latter he had no success, though he doubtless was 
near the mark in saying, ‘‘I think the reason thereof to 
be the want of skill or industry to order it aright.” 
Philip Miller appears to have been about the first to 
appreciate the usefulness of the Virginian strawberry, as 
he praises its flavour and earliness. In 1727 this famous 
old gardener brought from Holland plants of the Chilian 
strawberry which he described as frequently having 
deformed flowers and fruits, and as a bad bearer in most 
places where it had been cultivated. 
Regarding the introduction of the Pine strawberry, it 
can only be said that this occurred not later than 1759. 
Miller obtained it from a friend in Holland, who in turn 
secured it from Surinam, and it may be inferred that 
Fragraria chiloensis grandiflora was a form of the Chilian 
strawberry cultivated in this Dutch settlement. 
More success attended later efforts to cultivate both 
the Chilian and the Virginian strawberries, with the 
result that in each case some amount of variation arose. 
One of the earliest to commence the hybridisation of 
strawberries was Mr Thomas Andrew Knight, a 
president of the Royal Horticultural Society, who, in 
1818, contributed an interesting paper on the “‘ Variations 
of the Scarlet Strawberry,” to the Society’s literature. 
He considered all occidental forms to be “varieties of 
only one species,” and to them he added the then known 
large-fruited garden forms, excepting the Hautbois. 
By crossing White Chili with the Black strawberry 
(probably a form of /. virginiana), Mr Knight obtained 
a seedling that gave ‘‘a fruit weighing 274 grains.” 
The colour of the fruit was scarlet, the form conical, and 
not at all flattened or deformed. 
We come then, down to more modern times, and, in 
the words of the late Shirley Hibberd, we find “that 
the strawberries of Europe are mostly descended from 
the Chilian and Virginian stocks; while those of the 
