204 



FRUITS. 



[chap. 



the markets. As to the Chili (nearly as large as a pigeon's egg), 

 it is very little superior in iiavour to the potato. But I have 

 recently discovered (1833), or rather Sir Charles Wolseley has 

 been so good as to teach me, that there is a sort of Alpine straw- 

 berry which, perhaps, taken altogether, is the most valuable of 

 the whole. The French call it the Cisalpine strawberry , or the 

 Strawberry of Napoleon. It is cultivated in this manner : un- 

 like any other strawberry, it produces its like from the seed. The 

 seed, which is very small, may be sowed in a large flower-pot, in 

 the following manner at the following time. The pot should be 

 filled within an inch of the top with very fine earth ; a small 

 pinch of the seed should be as regularly as possible scattered over 

 the earth ; and throw some more very fine earth spread over the 

 seed about a quarter of an inch thick or less, being gently patted 

 down upon it, and afterwards a little water given to the pot 

 through a very fine watering-pot top ; and you will perceive the 

 seed coming up in about ten or twelve days. This sowing should 

 take place about the beginning or middle of February ; the pot 

 should be placed in a green-house, or in any room where the sun 

 gets at it, and should be occasionally watered. In the month of 

 April, the pot should be set out of doors in a warm place, sheltered 

 from heavy rains by being taken in, and sheltered also from hard 

 frosts if any come. In the month of May, the plants will be fit to 

 go out into the natural ground. A piece of ground should be 

 made very good, digged very deep, and broken very fine, and 

 especially made extremely smooth at top. With a very small 

 dibber, or little stick well pointed, put the plant out, in rows, the 

 rows being two feet apart, a:id the plants two feet apart in the 

 row. Put only a single plant in a place ; for, though the plant 

 will not be much bigger than a thread when you put it out, it 

 will soon become a great tuft, multiplying itself in a manner per- 

 fectly prodigious. These plants will have fine strawberries on 

 them about the middle or latter end of July, and they will keep 

 bearing until the hard winter frosts come and stop them. I saw, 

 in the month of September last, the finest dishes of strawberries 

 that I ever saw in my life at Wolseley-park, in Staffordshire. The 

 p ants were then in full bearing, and there were ripe strawberries 

 on the runners of that same summer. These strawberries go on 

 like the orange-tree, blowing and having ripe fruit at the same 

 time. The second year you must take care to take off all runners 



