[285] 'Theory of Horticult.,' ed. 2, p. 90, f. 25.
[286] As considerable interest attaches to the "Plymouth strawberry," and very little is known of it in this country, or on the continent, the author gladly avails himself of this opportunity of inserting an account of it, for which he is indebted to the kindness of Dr. Robert Hogg.—The Plymouth Strawberry (Fragaria vesca fructu hispido) is a sort of botanical Dodo upon which many have written, and which few have seen. Many years have elapsed since it was first discovered; and although a century and a half have passed since there was any evidence of its existence, it serves still as an illustration for students in morphology of one of those strange abnormal structures with which the vegetable kingdom abounds.
It is to old John Tradescant we are indebted for the earliest record of this plant. Johnson, in his edition of 'Gerard,' says; "Mr. John Tradescant hath told me that he was the first that tooke notice of this strawberry, and that in a woman's garden at Plimouth, whose daughter had gathered and set the roots in her garden, in stead of the common strawberry; but she, finding the fruit not to answer her expectation, intended to throw it away; which labour he spared her in taking it and bestowing it among the louers of such varieties, in whose garden it is yet preserved." Doubtless one of those "lovers" was his friend John Parkinson, who, in the year 1629, thus wrote concerning it: "One strawberry more I promised to shew you, which, although it be a wilde kinde, and of no vse for meate, yet I would not let this discourse passe without giuing you the knowledge of it. It is in leafe much like vnto the ordinary, but differeth in that the flower, if it haue any, is greene, or rather it beareth a small head of greene leaues, many set thicke together like vnto a double ruffe, in the midst whereof standeth the fruit, which, when it is ripe, sheweth to be soft and somewhat reddish, like vnto a strawberry, but with many small harmlesse prickles on them which may be eaten and chewed in the mouth without any maner of offence and is somewhat pleasant as a strawberry; it is no great bearer, but those it doth beare, are set at the toppes of the stalks close together, pleasant to behold, and fit for a gentlewoman to weare on her arme, &c., as a rairitie in stead of a flower."
Merret, in his 'Pinax.' published in 1667, says he found it growing in the woods of Hyde Park and Hampstead, and Zanoni was the first to figure it (with the exception of Parkinson's rude woodcut) in his 'Istoria Botanica,' published in 1675. It is mentioned by Morison and also by Ray, the latter of whom inserts it in his Synopsis, but without any habitat; though in his 'Historia Plantarum' he says: "Cantabrigiæ in horto per aliquot annos colui." From this time henceforth the Plymouth strawberry has become a botanical Dodo, nothing more having been seen or heard of it except the mere record of the name. In 1766, M. Duchesne informed the world of the generosity of "M. Monti, Docteur de Philosophie et de Médecine à Boulogne en Italie," who divided with him a dried specimen taken from his own herbarium, "Ce présent prétieux m'ôte toute incertitude sur la nature de ce Fraisier et sur ses caractères monstrueux. Il paroît ne pas avoir aujourd'hui plus d'existence."
[287] 'Bull. Soc. Bot. France,' 1856, vol. iii, p. 477.
[288] 'Ann. Sc. Nat.,' 3 ser., vol. ix, p. 86, tabs. v, vi.
[289] 'Bull. Soc. Bot. France,' vol. viii, 1861, p. 695.
[290] Ibid., vol. iii, 1856, p. 475.
[291] 'Flora,' 1856, p. 712.
[292] 'Trans. Linn. Soc.,' vol. xxvi, p. 37.