Seed library
Sir: We are endeavouring to locate the many missing masterpieces among vegetable varieties that are in greater, danger than any osprey or oryx both from the EEC Regulations and the economic pressure that makes it impossible for any seedsman to keep a' variety in his catalogue that sells less than a thousand packets. It is likely that we will be able to start an International Vegetable Seed Library, like the Rice Library in the Philippines, the Potato Library in Peru, the Macaroni Wheat Library in Italy and the many for farm seeds in Europe. The seeds we are seeking are those which have been raised by gardeners and allotment holders for many generations, for qualities such as hardiness, pest and disease resistance and above all flavour. Would those who can help us to save these Goyas and Rembrandts of the kitchen garden please write before they send in their treasures?
In particular we are looking for a lost strawberry variety, last sighted in advertisements about ten years ago. It was called a 'Rollerberry', and was in fact an old French remontant, but perhaps the ideal variety for small gardens, never producing a 'flush'
with all the fruit ready together. It was tasty, diseaseresistant and produced a few berries to pick for tea from about early July till late October, but unfortunately it made very few runners. The world is far more likely to need the genes of the vegetables which onlY survive while their stocks are raised by ageing gardeners in Britain and Europe, than those of the wildflower species endangered by roads and reservoirs, but these have many defenders.
Lawrence D. Hills
D irector-SecretarY, Henry Doubleday Research Association, Bocking, Braintree, Essex
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