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A NOTE ON FKAGARIA. 

 By James Bkitten, F.L.S. 



The treatment which Mr. Druce in his Flora of Berksliire 

 (pp. 189, 190) metes out to our British Strawberries seems to me 

 so likely to involve a hitherto sufficiently simple genus in confusion, 

 and to introduce new and untenable names into our nomenclature, 

 that I propose to deal with it at greater length than was possible in 

 the review of his book (pp. 101-9). My remarks will incidentally 

 show the light-heartedness with which accepted nomenclature is 

 sometimes overturned, and the slender grounds on which new 

 species are launched into being — even by those who, like Mr. Druce, 

 spare neither time nor industry in the pursuit of botanical in- 

 vestigation. 



Fbagaria bercheriensis. 



Under this name Mr. Druce proposes an addition to the known 

 species of Fragarla. It is true that he expresses many doubts as to 

 the position of the plant, but he gives it specific rank in the text of 

 his Flora. It may be well to consider its claims to this position, 

 and this I am the better able to do as the Rev. W. R. Linton 

 has kindly lent me excellent specimens collected and authenticated 

 by Mr. Druce. 



I propose in the first place to quote Mr. Druce's account of the 

 plant, omitting the localities, and then to comment upon this and 

 upon the specimens. The former runs thus : — 



" F. BERCHERIENSIS, Drucc, in Rep. Bot. Exch. Club (1894). 446. 

 ? F. vesca x cliiloensis. — The plant has the large leaves with the 

 open teeth and papyraceous texture of F. chiloensis, but the flowers 

 and fruit are not larger than in normal F. vesca. The hairs on the 

 stem are reflexed. Typical F. vesca grows in the ditches in the 

 vicinity. The facies of the plant is fairly well represented in the 

 plate of F. duinetorum, Jord., in Jordan and Fourreau's Icones 

 (t. xxvi.) ad Flora Europce, but F. dumetorum belongs to the group 

 of F. collina, which has an erect calyx appressed to the succulent 

 receptacle ; in F. bercheriensis they are reflexed as in F. vesca, from 

 which it is distinguished by its much larger leaves of a more 

 papyraceous texture, with more open teeth, the upper surface of a 

 darker green, the lower whitish in tint with very prominent leaf- 

 veins ; the calyx somewhat resembles cliiloensis. From F. chiloensis 

 it may be distinguished by its much smaller flowers and fruits. In 

 the shade form of F. vesca, illustrated by the var. sylvatica in Herb. 

 Ft. Ingricm, the plant is not so large nor are the leaves so markedly 

 light in colour on the under surface, and the leaf cutting is more 

 acute and the teeth closer together. The fact of its fruiting freely 

 is not an absolute proof of its not being of hybrid origin. 



" Specimens were distributed through the But. Exch. Club in 

 1894 ; the editor, the Rev. W. R. Linton, reports that he has seen 

 just the same plant in Norfolk and near Godalming in Surrey. 

 Possibly our plant may be only an extreme form of F. vesca. Com- 

 parative cultivation is needed before we can decide definitely if the 



