origin, or in which the speculative evolutionist can find stronger proof of the instability and elasticity of plants. I have said that the history of the strawberry is well known. There has been a careful record from the time Casper Bauhin and his contemporaries wrote their voluminous herbals. We cannot expect, as this time, therefore, to add anything to this long and consequential record. We must accept the history essentially as we find it. But it is possible that we shall be able to elucidate the evolution of the strawberry by the application of some of the principles of plant variation, the knowledge of which is now sufficient to warrant a constructive retrospect. At all events, if these laws cannot solve the general problem of the evolution of the strawberry, we must continue to remain in ignorance of its birth and departure. This inquiry will be all the more interesting, also, from the fact that the first monographer of the strawberries, Duchesne, in 1766, made an attempt to explain the origin of known species from the Alpine or Everbearing strawberries of Europe, and this essay, which has apparently not attracted the attention of modern philosophers, is one of the earliest efforts to account for the origin of organisms by means of a course of development. It is necessary at the outset to eliminate the so-called European types of strawberries from our inquiry. These belong to three or four species native to Europe, chiefly to Fragaria vesca and F. moschata (F. elatior), and the botanical characters are sufficiently clear and uniform to allow of little. doubt as to their origin. The first strawberries, like the Fressant, are of this type. These European types are mostly small and delicate fruits which are grown in France and some other parts of continental Europe, but which are little more than curiosities in England and America. It is the class of large American and English strawberries to which I now wish to direct attention, a type which, while grown in all temperate countries, seems to have first come to great prominence in England and which is the only market strawberry of America. The first foreign strawberry to reach Europe was the common small species of eastern America, and which is known to botanists as Fragaria Virginiana. The first distinct record of it in Europe is in 1624, when it was mentioned by Jean and Vespasien Robin, gardeners to Louis XIII. For more than a century it appears not to have taken on any new or striking forms. It bore a small bright scarlet berry, with a distinct constriction or neck near the stem and slightly acid flesh. It was in no way very different, probably, from the common wild strawberry which we now pick in the fields. It was never greatly esteemed on the continent, but in England it found greater favor. Duchesne writes of it, in 1766, that "they still cultivate it in England with favor" (avec honneur). The original form of the Scarlet or Virginian strawberry was still highly esteemed in England less than three-quarters of a century ago, at which time Barnet wrote enthusiastically of it. "This," [the Old Scarlet Strawberry] he says, " which has been an inhabitant of our gardens nearly, if not fully, two hundred years, was doubtless an original introduction from North America. It is singular that a kind of so much excellence, as to be at present scarcely surpassed by any of its class, should have been the first known. It continued in cultivation considerably more than half of the period of its existence as a garden fruit, without any variety having been produced of it, either by seed or by importation from America." Yet Barnet knew twenty-six good varieties of the species and describes them at length; and four of them seem to have come directly from America, probably from wild plants. A considerable progress had been made in the amelioration of the strawberry in England at the opening of the century, therefore, from the Virginian stock or foundation; but the varieties were much alike and contain little promise of the wonderful development in the strawberry varieties which we now enjoy. About 1712, a second species of strawberry reached Europe. This is the Fragaria Chiloensis, brought from Chili to Marseilles by Capt. Frezier. It reached England in 1727. It is a stout, thick-leaved shaggy plant which bore a large globular or somewhat pointed late dark colored fruit. In a few places, particularly about Brest, in France, it came to be cultivated 'Trans. London Hort. Soc., vi, 152 (1824). for its fruit; but in general it met small favor, particularly as the flowers were often imperfect and it did not fertilize itself. It did not seem to vary much under cultivation; at least, when Barnet wrote, about a century later, he knew only three varieties in England which he could refer to it, one of which he considered to be identical with the original plant as introduced by Frezier. The Chilian strawberry grows along the Pacific coast in both North and South America, and it has been introduced into our eastern gardens several times from wild sources; but it always soon disappears. There is little in the record of this species, therefore, of promise to the American horticulturist. In the middle of the last century, a third strawberry appeared in Europe. Some writers place the date of its introduction with considerable exactness; but the fact is that no one knew just when or how it came. Phillip Miller described and figured it in 1760 as the Pine strawberry, in allusion to the pine-apple fragrance of its fruit. There were three opinions as to its origin at that time, some saying it came from Louisiana, others that it came from Virginia, while there was a report, originating in Holland, that it came from Surinam, which is now the coast of Dutch Guiana. None of these reports have been either confirmed or disproved, although Gay, in making extensive studies of the growth of strawberries, may be said to have effectually overturned the Surinam hypothesis in his remark that to find a strawberry growing at sea-level within five degrees of the equator, is like finding a palm in Iceland or Hammerfest!3 Duchesne, in his Natural History of Strawberries,* 1766, described a Pine-apple strawberry as Fragaria ananassa, and while he did not know its origin he argued that it must be a hybrid between the Chilian and Virginian species. The pine-apple strawberries of England and France were found to be different from each other upon comparison, although the differences were such as might arise within the limits of any species or type, and by the end of the century most botanists began to regard the two as Ann. Sci. Nat. 4th Ser. viii, 203 (1857). 'Histoire Naturelle des Fraisiers. Par M. Duchesne fils. Paris, 1766. variations of one stock. This general type of Pine strawberries, comprising the large-hulled type long represented by the Bath Scarlet and erected into a distinct species by Duchesne as Fragaria calyculata, has been collectively known for a century as Fragaria grandiflora, a name bestowed by Ehrhart in 1792, although this name, together with the English name Pine, is gradually passing from use. We may say that thus far there are three hypotheses as to the origin of the Pine strawberrythat it came from North America, from Guiana, and that it is a compound or hybrid of two other species; and we may add a fourth-that apparently accepted by Duhamel and DeCandolle and certainly by Gay-that it is a direct modification of the Chilian strawberry, and also a fifth, advanced by Decaisne and accepted by others, that some, at least, of the varieties are products of the large, robust native form of our wild strawberry which is known as Fragaria Virginiana var. Illinoensis. I shall drop the Guianian origin as wholly untenable, and it will also be unprofitable to discuss directly the question of importation from North America, for we have nothing more than conjecture upon which to found any historical argument. I shall now endeavor to discover which of the remaining three hypotheses is best supported in the subsequent evolution of the plant itself: Is it a hybrid, a direct development of the Chilian species, or a form of the native variety Illinoensis? It is first necessary, however, to determine from what ancestral type our cultivated strawberry flora has sprung. Barnet, writing in 1824, referred all cultivated strawberries to seven groups or classes, three of which comprise the small European varieties which are outside this discussion. The remaining four classes comprise all the large-fruited types, and they are as follows: 1. The Scarlet or Virginian strawberries, with twenty-six varieties; 2. The Black strawberries or Fragaria tincta of Duchesne, with five varieties; 3. The Pines, with fifteen; 4. The True Chili strawberries, with three varieties. The Blacks and Pines are so nearly alike that they can be classed as one. Although the Pine class is the most recent of the lot, it had already varied into twenty forms, and, moreover, Jardin Fruitier du Museum, ix, under "Frasier d'Asa Gray." it contained the choice of the varieties. In this class is Keen's Seedling, which was then coming into prominence. This variety is the first conspicuous and signal contribution to commercial strawberry culture, and it marks an epoch amongst strawberries similar to that made by the Isabella amongst American grapes. It was grown from seeds of Keen's Imperial, which, in turn was raised from the White Carolina (known also as Large White Chili), which is regarded by Barnet as a Pine strawberry. Thomas Andrew Knight had made various interesting and successful crosses amongst the Scarlet or Virginian strawberries, but Keen's varieties so far excelled them, that Knight's productions were soon lost. From Keen's Seedling the present English strawberries have largely descended. The fruit of this remarkable strawberry was first shown in London in 1821. At this time there were apparently no important varieties in this country of American origin. Prince," writing in 1828, enumerates thirty strawberries of American gardens, of which all, or all but one, are of foreign origin. The two important varieties, and the ones which supplied "the principal bulk of this fruit sold in the New York market" were Red Chili (referred by Barnet and by George Lindley' to the Pines) and Early Hudson, probably a variety of Fragaria Virginiana. Keen's berries are in the list, but these, according to Hovey and other later writers, did not thrive in America. As late as 1837, Hovey wrote that "as yet the plants of nearly all the kinds in cultivation have been introduced from the English gardens, and are not suited to the severity of our climate." Mr. Hovey resolved to produce an American strawberry, and with a shrewdness which has rarely been equalled in the breeding of plants, he selected parents representing distinct ideals and the best adaptations to American conditions. Four varieties entered into a certain batch of crosses which he made. These were Keen's Seedling and Mulberry, both Pines, Melon, probably a Pine, and Methven Scarlet, a variety of the Virginian. From these crosses, two 6A Short Treatise on Horticulture, 72. New York. A Guide to the Orchard and Kitchen Garden, 487. London, 1831. |