THE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE STRAWBERRY. 541 



THE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE STRAWBERRY. 

 By E. A. Bunyard, F.R.H.S. 



[Read October 7, 1913; Mr. T. W. Sanders in the Chair.] 



The study of the history of cultivated fruits is attended with many 

 difficulties, and not the least among them is the lack of definite 

 records when such history extends into remote prehistoric periods. In 

 the case, however, of the Strawberry such impediment does not exist, 

 as the whole period of its development has occurred in comparatively 

 modern times. This study is further made easier by the fact that 

 from the earliest days of the history of the modern Strawberry there 

 have been amateurs who recorded its progress with great exactness. 

 We enter, therefore, upon this subject with a large body of precise 

 historical detail which no other fruit can parallel. 



The Strawberry thus offers peculiar opportunities for the study 

 of the evolution of a fruit in its scientific as well as in its horticul- 

 tural aspect, and while the latter is the principal consideration of 

 this paper, the former will also be kept in view. The idea of a pro- 

 gressive increase in size and flavour owing to the effects of cultivation 

 is one that is still held, and it will be of interest to see what support 

 the history of the Strawberry can afford to this conception. 



The first species of Strawberry which will be considered is Fragaria 

 vesca L. (fig. 164), a native of Europe, and especially of its northern 

 parts. This is the species which has been known to horticultural 

 writers since the days of Pliny, and of which the herbalists make 

 frequent mention. It is well known that this Strawberry varies in 

 the wild state. A white form, a sterile form, and a large-fruited 

 variety have been frequently noted. These variations, therefore, 

 are obviously not due to cultivation, and the early gardeners may 

 have cultivated either of these forms. 



It is not easy to fix an exact date for the first mention of the 

 Strawberry, but it is generally held that to Nicolas Myrepsus, 

 a Greek doctor of the thirteenth century, must be accorded the honour. 

 Both in Greek and Roman literature the Arbutus and the Strawberry 

 were given a common name, a result of the theory of affinities then 

 so much in vogue. Pliny, however, distinguished the difference in 

 flavour, and the name ' fragum ' must, no doubt, have been first 

 applied to the fragrant Strawberry. It does not seem, however, that 

 it was then a cultivated plant, and it is usual to place its intro- 

 duction to cultivation in the fifteenth century. There is, however, 

 ample evidence that it was found in gardens long before this ; docu- 

 ments exist which prove it was thus grown in the early part of the 



