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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 “ Fragarise genus 
in alpibus Bargeis visum, bis in anno fructificans.” The same 
is described by C. Baulim (“Pin.” 326) 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 Csesalpin’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 Nainvilliers. 
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: 
“ Fragas vere et tota aestate florent inque maximam autumni 
partem ” (Gessn., “Coll.” 1558, 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, 
