I shall not presume to follow one who could illumine his page with
genius, and whose extensive learning enabled him to account for the
universe not merely in one but in half a dozen ways.

It is the tendency of the present age to ask what is, not what has
been or shall be. And yet, on the part of some, as they deliberately
enjoy a saucer of strawberries and cream,--it is a pleasure that we
prolong for obvious reasons,--a languid curiosity may arise as to the
origin and history of so delicious a fruit. I suppose Mr. Darwin would
say, "it was evolved." But some specimens between our lips suggest
that a Geneva watch could put itself together quite as readily. At the
same time, it must be said that our "rude forefathers" did not eat
Monarch or Charles Downing strawberries. In few fruits, probably, have
there been such vast changes or improvements as in this. Therefore, I
shall answer briefly and as well as I can, in view of the meagre data
and conflicting opinions of the authorities, the curiosity, that I
have imagined on some faces. Those who care only for the strawberry of
to-day can easily skip a few pages.

If there were as much doubt about a crop of this fruit as concerning
the origin of its name, the outlook would be dismal, indeed. In old
Saxon, the word was streawberige or streowberrie; and was so named,
says one authority, "from the straw-like stems of the plant, or from
the berries lying strewn upon the ground." Another authority tells us:
"It is an old English practice" (let us hope a modern one also) "to
lay straw between the rows to preserve the fruit from rotting on the
wet ground, from which the name has been supposed to be derived;
although more probably it is from the wandering habit of the plant,
straw being a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon strae, from which we have
the English verb stray." Again tradition asserts that in the olden