s arrived at this conclusion from finding in the several
varieties a perfect gradation between the most extreme characters; so
perfect is this gradation that he maintains it to be impossible to
classify the varieties by any natural method. M. Decaisne raised many
seedlings from four distinct kinds, and has carefully recorded the
variations in each. Notwithstanding this extreme degree of {351}
variability, it is now positively known that many kinds reproduce by
seed the leading characters of their race.[713]

_Strawberries (Fragaria)._--This fruit is remarkable, on account of the
number of species which have been cultivated, and from their rapid
improvement within the last fifty or sixty years. Let any one compare
the fruit of one of the largest varieties exhibited at our Shows with
that of the wild wood strawberry, or, which will be a fairer
comparison, with the somewhat larger fruit of the wild American
Virginian Strawberry, and he will see what prodigies horticulture has
effected.[714] The number of varieties has likewise increased in a
surprisingly rapid manner. Only three kinds were known in France, in
1746, where this fruit was early cultivated. In 1766 five species had
been introduced, the same which are now cultivated, but only five
varieties of _Fragaria vesca_, with some sub-varieties, had been
produced. At the present day the varieties of the several species are
almost innumerable. The species consist of, firstly, the wood or Alpine
cultivated strawberries, descended from _F. vesca_, a native of Europe
and of North America. There are eight wild European varieties, as
ranked by Duchesne, of _F. vesca_, but several of these are considered
species by some botanists. Secondly, the green strawberries, descended
from the European _F. collina_, and little cultivated in England.
Thirdly, the Hautbois, from the European _F. elatior_. Fourthly, the
Scarlets, descended from _F. Virginiana_, a native of the whole breadth
of North America. Fifthly, the Chili, descended from _F. Chiloensis_,
an inhabitant of the west coast of the temperate parts both of North
and South America. Lastly, the Pines or Carolinas (including the old
Blacks), which have been ranked by most authors under the name of _F.
grandiflora_ as a distinct species, said to inhabit Surinam; but this
is a manifest error. This fo