markets. As we have seen, the Fragaria vesca, or the Alpine species of
Europe, is substantially the same to-day as it was a thousand years
ago. But the capacity of the Virginian strawberry for change and
improvement is shown by those great landmarks in the American culture
of this fruit,--the production of Hovey's Seedling by C. M. Hovey, of
Cambridge, Mass., forty-five years since; of the Wilson's Albany
Seedling, originated by John Wilson, of Albany, N. Y., about twenty-
five years ago, and, in our own time, of the superb varieties, Monarch
of the West, Seth Boyden, Charles Downing, and Sharpless.

As in the Alpine species there are two distinct strains,--the Alpine
of the Continent, and the Wood strawberry of England,--so in the wild
Virginian species there are two branches of the family,--the Eastern
and the Western. The differences are so marked that some writers have
asserted that there are two species; but we have the authority of
Professor Gray for saying that the Western, or Fragaria Illincensis,
is "perhaps" a distinct species, and he classifies it as only a very
marked variety.

There are but two more species of the strawberry genus. Of the first
of these, the Fragaria Indica, or "Indian" strawberry, there is little
to say. It is a native of Northern India, and differs so much from the
other species that it was formerly named as a distinct genus. It has
yellow flowers, and is a showy house-plant, especially for window-
baskets, but the fruit is dry and tasteless. It is said by Professor
Gray to have escaped cultivation and become wild in some localities of
this country.

Fragaria Chilensis is the last great species or subdivision that we
now have to consider. Like the F. Virginiana, it is a native of the