344 On the Cultivation of the Strawberry, 



of sowing seeds and selecting plants, in order to obtain vari- 

 eties possessing particular qualities. In tasting them, I have 

 been often disappointed; and at present I have only two 

 fine varieties. Some seeds were sent to me last year among 

 other things from the Society's store, and from the produce 

 I have selected a considerable number of plants differing 

 from each other in the size, shape, rugosity, pubescence, ser- 

 rature and colour of the leaves, out of about twenty selected 

 plants last year, only three or four yielded tolerable fruit, 

 and but one a finely flavoured Strawberry. This single plant 

 has produced so many runners that I have made a consider- 

 able plantation from it. From my own experience, therefore, 

 I suspect that to treat the Alpine as an annual is not correct; 

 and that to manage it in the same manner as other Straw- 

 berries is better. That this is the general understanding in 

 Scotland, appears from the circumstance of the Caledonian 

 Horticultural Society having offered a prize for an Alpine 

 Strawberry possessing particular qualities and properties. 



The Market of Edinburgh, so long famed for Strawberries, 

 seems to have fallen off very much ; not indeed in the quan- 

 tity of fruit supplied, but in its quality. The reason is that 

 the plantations are not often enough renewed. The Surinam, 

 called in Edinburgh the Hautbois, has lost its character 

 merely from improper cultivation. It is in reality a rich and 

 finely flavoured fruit, and preserves whole better than any 

 other sort I have yet seen tried. It has the quality of pro- 

 ducing good fruit, without renewal, during a longer period 

 than any other, and that too on poor ground, the crops being 

 most abundant. 



It appears curious that no new Strawberry has yet been 



