y it
was possible to class all of them under some one species, but that now
this is quite impossible with the American forms, the new English
varieties having completely filled up the gaps between them.[721] The
blending together of two or more aboriginal forms, which there is every
reason to believe has occurred with some of our anciently cultivated
productions, we now see actually occurring with our strawberries.

The cultivated species offer some variations worth notice. The Black
Prince, a seedling from Keen's Imperial (this latter being a seedling
of a very white strawberry, the white Carolina), is remarkable from
"its peculiar dark and polished surface, and from presenting an
appearance entirely unlike that of any other kind."[722] Although the
fruit in the different varieties differs so greatly in form, size,
colour, and quality, the so-called seed (which corresponds with the
whole fruit in the plum), with the exception of being more or less
deeply embedded in the pulp, is, according to De Jonghe,[723]
absolutely the same in all; and this no doubt may be accounted for by
the seed being of no value, and consequently not having been subjected
to selection. The strawberry is properly three-leaved, but in 1761
Duchesne raised a single-leaved variety of the European {353}
wood-strawberry, which Linnaeus doubtfully raised to the rank of a
species. Seedlings of this variety, like those of most varieties not
fixed by long-continued selection, often revert to the ordinary form,
or present intermediate states.[724] A variety raised by Mr.
Myatt,[725] apparently belonging to one of the American forms, presents
a variation of an opposite nature, for it has five leaves; Godron and
Lambertye also mention a five-leaved variety of _F. collina_.

The Red Bush Alpine strawberry (one of the _F. vesca_ section) does not
produce stolons or runners, and this remarkable deviation of structure
is reproduced truly by seed. Another sub-variety, the White Bush
Alpine, is similarly characterised, but when propagated by seed it
often degenerates and produces plants with runners.[726] A strawberry
of the American Pine section is also said to make but few runners.[727]

Much has been written on the sexes of strawberries; the true Hautbois
properly bears the male and female organs on separate plants,[728] and