414 ICOSANDRIA— POLYGYNIA. Fragaria. 



Nat. Ord. see ?i. 254;. 



Cat. inferior, of 1 leaf, flat, permanent; limb in 10 deep 

 segments, 5 alternate ones external and smallest. Pei. 

 5, roundish, spreading, attached to the rim of the calyx 

 by their short claws, opposite to its outer segments. Fi- 

 lam. 20, from the rim of the calyx, awl-shaped, erect, 

 shorter than the corolla, permanent. Anth. roundish, 

 incumbent, of 2 cells, deciduous. Germens superior, nu- 

 merous, roundish, small, collected into a round head. 

 Styles 1 to each germen, lateral, short, incurved, per- 

 manent. Stigmas simple, obtuse. Berry spurious, formed 

 of the enlarged receptacle of the seeds, become pulpy, co- 

 loured, ovate or roundish, abrupt at the base, finally de- 

 ciduous. Seeds numerous, naked, scattered over the 

 surface of the berry, roundish-ovate, acute, smooth and 

 even. 



Herbs more or less haii-y, with trailing I'lmjiers, and short 

 erect flowering stems. Leaves ternate, rarely simple, 

 strongly serrated, somewhat plaited. Stipidas in pairs 

 united to the base of each Jbot stalk. Ft. imperfectly pa- 

 nicled, white. Fruit red, varying to a yellowish white, 

 fragrant and delicious ; to most people very wholesome ; 

 to some few an absolute poison. The word mostly should 

 be expunged from the second line of p. 353. 



Dr. Nestler of Strasburgh, a recent writer of great merit, 

 has, in a Monograph on Potentilla, applied the name of 

 bracteas to the 5 outer segments of the calyx, in these 

 genera and their allies. Mr. Seringue, and the present 

 Mr. Haller, have done the same. But bracteas belong 

 properly to the injlorescence, not to the fructification ; 

 and these outer segments differ in no respect from the 

 inner, except a more leafy texture, in which they exactly 

 agree with the leaflets, or pinna, of the calyx-segments 

 in Rosa, which it would be absurd to call bracteas, and 

 which actually prove the parts in question not to be such. 

 Dr. Nestler moreover follows several recent botanists of 

 high rank in denominating the seeds of these plants 

 akenia ; for it seems the French school at present do 

 not allow the existence of any naked seeds. This is an 

 old subject of dispute, and is chiefly a difference of words. 

 Every seed, though it may not have a pericarp, must be 

 protected by an integument, which is its testa, or shin ; 

 see Introd. to Botany, f. -l ; and in that sense indeed no 

 seed is naked. But the testa differs in texture and con- 



