CHAPTER XVIII 



THE STRAWBERRIES 



All of the strawberries belong to one genus, Fragaria, a 

 member of Order Rosacege. The fragrance of the fruit gives 

 the Latin name to the genus. Fragaria is widely distributed, 

 no continent or large body of land, excepting Australia, being 

 without an indigenous species. While the genus grows most 

 abundantly in temperate climates, yet forms are found in the 

 tropics, and, if not in arctic regions, at least to their very borders. 

 Thus widely diffused, the species are exceedingly variable, and 

 no fewer than 150 names have been applied to the different 

 forms. 



308. The genus Fragaria described. — The strawberry is a 

 low creeping perennial herb, thus sharply distinguished from 

 all other hardy fruits in Rosaceas, since all others are woody 

 and either trees or shrubs. The conspicuous characters of 

 Fragaria are : 



Plant a stemless herbaceous perennial with a scaly rootstock; rooting 

 from runners. Leaves palmately three-lobed, toothed; springing from a 

 crown. Flowers white or reddish, borne in corymb-like racemes on slender 

 leafless scapes; calyx five-lobed and having five sepal-like bracts; petals 5, 

 obovate, elliptical or orbicular; stamens many, short; pistils many, on a 

 conical receptacle. Fruit the enlarged pulpy receptacle which bears small, 

 hard, persistent achenes. 



309. The Virginian strawberry described. — The first straw- 

 berry to be cultivated in America was the Virginian as it was 

 early called. While no pure-bred variety of this species is now 

 under cultivation, its blood may be traced in several garden 

 sorts and it is not uncommon as a wild plant. 



1. Fragaria virginiana, Duchesne. Plant small, slender, erect, with 

 slender, wiry, deeply-set roots; runners numerous, long, appearing with 

 and after the blossoms. Leaves radical; leaflets large, thin, light green, 

 glabrous at maturity, 3, obovate-wedge-form, coarsely serrate. Flowers 



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