314 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



blooms only once in the spring of the year, while the Alpine bears 

 flowers from April till November, and even later, whenever 

 the weather is mild in the autumn. (Fig. 68.) 



Duchesne was the first to give a complete and detailed account 

 of the " fraisier des mois," as he calls it. He refers the plant to 

 a kind mentioned by Caesalpin (" Syst." 554) as " Fragariae genus 

 in alpibus Bargeis visum, bis in anno fructificans." The same 

 is described by C. Baulim ("Pin." 32G) as "Fragaria bis fructum 

 ferens; " by Parkinson as " Fragaria alpina fructu compresso " 

 (" Theatr." 757). Duchesne ("Hist." pp. 57,58) considers that 

 all the latter authors spoke of the plant merely on Caesalpin's 

 authority, who either saw the plant or heard of it from people 

 who had actually seen it. 



He (Duchesne), on the strength of Caesalpin's description, 

 wrote to a resident at Bargemon, in Provence, and satisfied himself 

 that a kind of Strawberry was found in great abundance and in 

 a wild state in the vicinity of the town, and having the peculiarity 

 mentioned. Plants were sent to him at Versailles, where they 

 succeeded well and became soon widely distributed. 



A short time before that, in 1764, M. de Fougeroux de 

 Bondaroi, returning from Italy, had seen similar Strawberries on 

 Mont Cenis, and collected seeds which his uncle, M. Duhamel du 

 Monceau, a great amateur and judge of plants, sowed with success 

 on his estate at Xainvilliers. 



It is said (Duch., "Hist." p. 56) that the same variety of Straw- 

 berry had been under cultivation for a few years about London 

 at the same time, the first seeds having been sent to the King 

 from Turin. The cultivation of the new kind spread rapidly 

 around London, and was soon transferred from there to Holland. 



The knowledge of the perpetual Strawberry may even be 

 traced further back than to Caesalpin's book, as the following 

 passage occurs in a work of Jerome Back, better known as 

 Tragus : — " Floret vero fragaria plerumque Aprili mense, de- 

 mumque ad autumnum usque" (Trag. "Comm." Argent. 1552, 

 1. I. c. 170. p. 499) ; and again from the pen of Conrad Gessner : 

 " Fraga? vere et tota restate florent in que maximam autumni 

 partem " (Gessn., " Coll." 1553, pp. 478 and 490). 



The peculiarity of bearing flowers and fruit during the whole 

 of the summer months was so well inbred in the race of Straw- 

 berry found at Bargemon and in the neighbouring mountains, 



