THE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE STRAWBERRY. 547 



show that the cause was the gradual weeding out of the male plants 

 on account of their infertility, thus leaving the female plants without 

 pollenizers. This cause had been overlooked owing to the fact that 

 both plants were apparently hermaphrodite, but the anthers in the 

 female plants, though present, bore no pollen, and similarly in the 

 male plants the ovaries did not function. 



It is not possible here to refer in fuller detail to this interesting 

 book or its writer. Suffice it to say that the Histoire Naturelle des 

 Fraisiers remains a classic in Strawberry literature, and a book to 

 which all historians of this fruit must constantly refer. 



The stimulus which might have been expected to result from 

 this work in France was lost in the confusion of the Revolution, when 

 gardeners found uses for their pitchforks outside the seclusion of 

 their gardens, and many pruning-hooks were beaten into swords. 



It was in England that the next chapter cf Strawberry history 

 was written, and to Thomas Andrew Knight and Michael Keens 

 must be given the honour of laying the foundation of the Strawberry 

 of the present day. As has been stated above, the two most important 

 species had existed for some time in England, and it was to the crossings 

 of early descendants of F. virginiana and F. chiloensis that this success 

 was due. At the end of the eighteenth century a well-furnished 

 English garden would have contained the following varieties and 

 species : F. vesca, F. elatior, and their varieties as described above ; 

 F. chiloensis and its varieties, ' Carolina,' ' Pine ' or ' Ananas,' and 

 F. virginiana and its varieties ' Duke of Kent ' and ' Austrian Scarlet.' 



The credit of raising the first large-fruited Strawberries belongs 

 to Michael Keens, a market gardener of Isleworth. Having been 

 a raiser of seedling fruits for many years, he chose in 1806 some 

 seeds of the Chile Strawberry and obtained many seedlings, mostly 

 white, but one of outstanding merit was found and named ' Keens' 

 Imperial ' (Trans. R.H.S. vol. xi. p. 101, coloured plate). The im- 

 portance of this fruit in Strawberry history is due to the fact that 

 it was seed parent to the renowned ' Keens' Seedling ' which was pro- 

 duced in 1 82 1. The large size and excellent flavour of this fruit 

 created a sensation which probably no succeeding Strawberry has 

 ever equalled. The Royal Horticultural Society showed its approval 

 by a coloured plate in its Transactions (vol. v. p. 261), and by pre- 

 senting the raiser with a silver cup. It is interesting to know that 

 this cup exists in London at the present time. In many respects 

 it may be said that this remarkable fruit is hardly surpassed at the 

 present day, and though in some one aspect or another varieties 

 may be found which outclass it, its influence as the principal parent 

 of the large-fruited race of Strawberries cannot be overestimated. 



The success, however, of Keens was rather in the nature of a 

 happy chance, and it is to Thomas Andrew Knight that we owe 

 the first scientific attempt at Strawberry breeding on a large scale. 

 The first account of Knight's work was printed in the Transactions 

 of this Society (vol. iii. p. 207). From this paper it is evident that 



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