August 12. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
301 
in the neighbourhood of London; and M. Duchesne, i 
writing in 1760, says that the King of England was un¬ 
derstood to have received the first seeds from Turin : it 
was such a rarity that a pinch of the seed sold for a 
guinea, but its fecundity very speedily reduced this price. 
It was introduced into England by the Dutch market 
gardeners, who sold the plants at the rate of five livres 
i per 100. It was from England and Holland that plants 
of this strawberry were first procured for the French 
king’s garden at Trianon. ( Duchesne's Ilistoire cles 
Frai tiers, 57.) The exportation is now reversed, for 
Alpine strawberry seed is commonly imported into this 
country from Paris. 
The Cappron, which we have seen was mentioned by 
Quintinnie, was the first improved garden variety, and 
was obtained from the seed of the Wood strawberry. It 
appears to have been obtained at Montreuil, in France, 
by a strawberry grower named Pierre Fressant, about 
the year 1660, and was known in 1766 as the Fressant 
strawberry. Duchesne thinks it is the Frag aria hortensis 
mentioned by Salmon in his Botanologia. (Ilistoire ties 
Framers, 113.) The variety is now unknown, but has 
probably been an ancestor of some of our present 
improved varieties. 
The Hautbois is said by Miller to have been brought 
hither from America; but in this, we think, he was mis- 
i taken. It is not found native on that side of the Atlantic, 
but it is found wild in Germany ; and Parkinson, we have 
seen, probably calls it the Polonian or Bohemian, and says 
it was but lately introduced. Its very name seems to be 
a corruption of its German designation, Haarbeer. It 
is the Capiton of the old French writers. Parkinson 
says, in 1629, “ it hath been with us but of late days. 
Master Quester, the postmaster, first brought them over 
into our country, as I understand ; but I know no man 
so industrious in the careful planting and bringing them 
to perfection in that plentiful manner, as Master Vincent 
Sion, on the Bank side, near the old Paris garden stairs, 
who, from seven roots, as he affirmed to me, in one year 
and a half, planted half an acre of ground with the in¬ 
crease from them, besides those he gave away to his 
friends.” 
The Chili Strawberry. —The Spaniards conveyed the 
strawberry with them to South America, and at the foot 
of the Cordillera mountains, near Quito, our present 
Chili variety was raised. It was seen there by M. 
Frezier during his “ Voyage in the South Sea,” and 
brought to France by him on his return to Marseilles in 
1716. It was called by the South American Spaniards 
Frutilla, or Little Fruit, a singularly inappropriate name 
if the comparison was with other strawberries, for it was 
1 then the largest of the known varieties. The French, 
1 galliciziug the name, called it Le Frutiller, and it appears 
! to have been first successfully and largely cultivated by 
1 them at Brest. From thence it was procured by the i 
plant dealers of Amsterdam, and Miller imported it 
from Mr. Clifford’s garden at Hartecamp, near that city, 
in 1727. It had bloomed in Miller’s garden at Eltham 
in 1730, but had not borne fruit; and even as late as 
1766, Duchesne says, that Miller considered its cultiva- j 
tion abandoned in England on account of its sterility. 
The parentage and birth-place of the Pine Strawberry 
is uncertain. It first became known to the English and 1 
French gardeners about the middle of the last century. ! 
Duchesne seems to consider it a hybrid between the | 
Scarlet and the Chili, but Miller considers it a new ■ 
species. At first, in 1759, he believed that it was a j 
native of Louisiana, but in later editions of his Dic¬ 
tionary he seems -to doubt between that country, Vir¬ 
ginia, and Surinam. Duchesne is quite right in think¬ 
ing the latter tropical locality too hot to have been its 
birth-place. It reached the Trianon Gardens in 1762, 
and in company with other plants from Canada and 
Virginia. ( Histoire cles Fraisiers, 202.) 
The Scarlet, known also as the Virginian and Cana¬ 
dian strawberry, is most probably a native species of 
North America, and brought to England before the 
middle of the 17th century. Bradley, in 1720, and 
Switzer, in 1724, mention it in their lists of garden 
strawberries. It was included in Tradescant’s Catalogue 
in 1623, and more fully particularized by Parkinson in 
1656. Mortimer, writing in 1707, says it was lately 
introduced. It is usually considered by botanists as a 
distinct species, but Duchesne thinks it an offspring of 
the Wood strawberry. 
The present century, subsequently to Knight’s ex¬ 
periments on hybridizing, has been the birth-time of 
many varieties, but few of which, however, have perma¬ 
nent claims upon the favour of the cultivator. These 
few exceptions are — the Roseberry, raised by Robert 
Davidson, Esq., near Aberdeen, in 1810 ; Wilmot's 
Superb, of great size, but deficient flavour, produced in 
1825; Grove Enel Scarlet, raised by W. Atkinson, Esq., 
at Grove End, Paddington, in 1820; Keen’s Seedling, 
raised by Mr. Michael Keen, a market gardener at Isle- 
worth, about the year 1823 ; Elton, raised by T. Knight, 
Esq., in 1828; Doivnton, raised in 1816 by the same 
distinguished horticulturist; and Myatt’s Pine, Prince 
Albert, Eliza, and British Queen, all raised by Mr. 
Myatt, market gardener, at Deptford, within the last 
few years, and some few others we shall mention 
presently. 
In Scotland, next to England, is the strawberry cul¬ 
tivated more largely and more generally than in any 
other country of Europe. We have the following par¬ 
ticulars on the subject from Mr. J. Smith, gardener to 
the Earl of Hopetoun. 
The cultivation of strawberries in the neighbourhood 
of large towns in Scotland is found to be a very lucrative 
employment, and is therefore carried on to a consider¬ 
able extent. By its means poor and industrious men 
have risen to comparative opulence, and, in some in 
stances, the farmer has been induced to add it to the 
ordinary branches of agriculture. It is stated by Dr. 
Neill, in his treatise on the Gardens and Orchards of 
Scotland,* and from sufficient data, that the quantity of 
* Neill on Scottish Gardens and Orchards, in Sir John Sinclair’s 
General Report on the Agricultural State, &c., of Scotland, vol. ii., 
page 90 . 
