THE STRAWBERRY. 



591 



remarkable for the abundance of their produce, 

 although the fruit individually is small, for a pecu- 

 liarity of flavour, and for continuing to bear till 

 killedby the frost. Mr Thompson justly observes : 

 " The best of these are the Red and White 

 wood, and the Bed and White alpine. The 

 latter are apt to degenerate, and assume the 

 characters of the Wood varieties." The Cisal- 

 pine or Napoleon, spoken highly of by Mr 

 Cobbett in his " English Gardener," is merely 

 the Red alpine under another name. 



Red alpine. — Fruit conical and red ; the larg- 

 est of its class; an abundant bearer, and ex- 

 ceedingly high flavoured. Like all of this class, 

 they prefer a pretty strong soil, and will pros- 

 per in a soil less deep than the larger-sized 

 strawberries in former classes. Synonyms — 

 Scarlet alpine, Prolific alpine, with a long list of 

 French synonyms, in which country, and over 

 the most of the continent of Europe, this class 

 is very popular ; for it is comparatively only 

 within these last few years that our large 

 English strawberries were known or cultivated 

 there. 



White alpine. — Similar in character, except in 

 colour, and being sometimes, when large, more 

 compressed at the ends than the last, and like 

 all the class continuing to bear fruit from June 

 to November. 



Red wood. — Fruit roundish, otherwise very 

 similar to the first, only bearing fruit, however, 

 during June and July. 



White wood. — Similar in all respects to the 

 last, differing only in colour. 



Red bush alpine, or Russian. — Fruit roundish 

 ovate ; in size and colour resembling the Red 

 alpine, only distinguished, and that prominently, 

 by the plants growing like small bushes, send- 

 ing out no runners, and carrying the fruit upon 

 strongish upright fruit-stalks, the fruit appear- 

 ing over the leaves, and not lying prostrate like 

 the Alpines. 



White bush alpine. — In all respects resembling 

 the last, differing only in colour. 



Several varieties of strawberries are in culti- 

 vation besides those described above. We have 

 selected them as being the best, both from ex- 

 perience and observation. 



Insects and diseases. — The aphis sometimes 

 attacks the plants in the open garden, but more 

 frequently in the forcing-house. In the for- 

 mer case, dusting the crop over with finely- 

 powdered hot lime before the bloom appears is the 

 remedy ; in the latter, the usual recourse must 

 be had to tobacco fumigation, but this should 

 not be attempted after the blossom begins to 

 expand. The red-spider and thrip also attack 

 them in the forcing-house— a pretty clear indi- 

 cation of too high a temperature, and too limited 

 an amount of humidity in the atmosphere of 

 the house. The remedies already noticed should 

 be attended to. The slug and snail are, how- 

 ever, their great enemies in the open garden, but 

 a good watering with lime-water, or dressing the 

 ground between the rows with hot lime just 

 before the flowers begin to open, will in most 

 cases secure the crop from their attacks. 



The larvae of St Mark's fly (Bibio marci, 

 Tipula marci Linn.), fig. 244, like many of the 



allied species, are gregarious, and are sometimes 

 found in strawberry-beds to the amount of a 



Fig. 244. 



st mark's fly, grub, and chrysalis. 



hundred or upwards in one group. They seem, 

 however, to prefer long-undisturbed spots ; 

 hence their unwelcome appearance is much less 

 to be dreaded when the one or two year system 

 of planting is adopted, than when the plantation 

 is allowed to stand for several years. The larva, 

 which is of a dark-brown colour, is to be found 

 in October, in form somewhat cylindrical, flat- 

 tened underneath, and nearly linear ; head 

 small, deep brown, and occasionally chestnut or 

 light brown, very shining. It has no feet. The 

 mouth is furnished with tridental jaws, palpi- 

 jointed, as are also the lips and maxilla. The 

 length of the full - grown larva is about three 

 quarters of an inch. It changes in March to a 

 pupa of a pale ochreous colour. The face is 

 heart-shaped ; the antennae short, brown, and 

 curved ; thorax gibbous ; abdomen cylindrical, 

 terminated by two small spines. They remain 

 in the pupa state for nearly five weeks, the 

 males appearing about the end of April, and the 

 females towards the middle or end of May. The 

 perfect insect, throughout the whole of this ex- 

 tensive genus, as regards males and females, is 

 very dissimilar, both as to size and colour. The 

 head is larger in the male than in the female, 

 and the wings are much lighter and smaller. 

 The male is black, shining, covered with long 

 soft hairs ; the head and eyes large ; antennae 

 short and nine-jointed ; thorax round ; scutel 

 half orbicular ; abdomen long, tapering, the 

 point blunt, armed with forceps; legs long, espe- 

 cially the hinder ones, as well as the thighs, 

 which are also broad and compressed. Wings 

 of the male white and transparent ; costal mar- 

 gin brown, as are also the stigma and surround- 

 ing nervures. Female larger and darker than 

 the male ; head small and oval ; eyes small, 

 lateral, and remote ; abdomen large, tapering 

 towards the base; apex trigonate ; wings very 

 ample, brownish ; stigma and costal nervures 



