PERPETUAL STRAWBERRIES. 



323 



abortions. L'lnepuisable was disappearing out of sight when a 

 new sort was brought before the public as ' Roi Henri.' This 

 was in most respects so like ' l'lnepuisable ' as to be hardly 

 distinguishable from it : it would scarcely deserve to be men- 

 tioned but for one important fact, viz., that it was the first pro- 

 duction of the man who was to originate some years later 

 the first really good perpetual Strawberry, Abbe Thivolet, of 

 Chenoves, Saone-et-Loire. 



According to the Abbe himself,* who has been for a long time 

 a passionate lover of horticulture, he sought a departure in a 

 cross between a large-fruited and the Alpine Strawberry. One 

 ought to wonder if he had not. The idea is so obvious that 

 the same cross was attempted times without number. But as it 

 never succeeded, it is most likely that in the present instance it 

 was equally inefficient. The facts related above show plainly 

 enough that no such cross was needed for the production of a per- 

 petual large Strawberry, and a change in the sexual development 

 of the plant was, I think, more to the point than a change in 

 the tendency to produce a succession of flower stems. 



The fate of ' Roi Henri ' turned out to be nearly the same as 

 that of ( l'lnepuisable.' After calling forth a certain interest it 

 was dismissed by the general public as a mere curiosity. But 

 not so by its raiser. He persisted in sowing seeds of his Straw- 

 berry, both self-impregnated and crossed with other large-fruited 

 kinds. His indomitable perseverance was destined to triumph at 

 last. Next to Roi Henri he raised Robert Lefort and Leon XIII. ; 

 the latter especially he considered as promising. Although less 

 floriferous than his previous seedlings, it set and matured its fruit 

 better and more regularly. Finally, in 1893, a seedling appeared 

 which flowered continuously from May till November,t and 

 set a fruit for every flower. This was named ' St. Joseph' — with 

 it "the perpetual large Strawberry was discovered." So the 

 raiser puts it, and his boast is perfectly justified. (Figs. 73 

 and 74.) 



Of course there is ample room left for improvement. The 

 plant is rather dwarfish and depressed ; the leaves, which are of 

 a dark-bluish green, are mostly spread flat on the ground ; the 

 stems are short and need supporting to raise the fruit from the 



*Moniteur des Campagnes, St. Quentin. 



f On November 26, 1898, • St. Joseph ' was still blooming in my own 

 garden. — En. 



