FRAGARIA 189 



FRAGARIA, Linn. Gen. n. 558 (Tournefort. Inst. t. 152). 

 T. vesca, Linn. Sp. PI. 494 (1753). Wild Strawberry. 



Top. Bot. 135. Syme, E. B. iii. 154, t. 438. Nyman, 222. Fl. Oxf. 100. 

 Native. Sylvestral. Woods and hedge-banks, generally distributed 



and locally common. P. March-September. 

 First record. F. vesca. Dr. Noehden, Mavors Agr. Berks, 1809. Bagley 

 Wood, Mr. Baxters MSS. 1823. 

 Var. SYLVATicA, Herb. Fl. Ingricae, n. 206, b, is a form with larger 

 leaves, which are longer petioled and more glabrous above, and with 

 more rampant runners. It occurs on hedge-banks in many stations, 

 as near Bradfield, Wytham, Wargrave, Enborne, &c. 

 F. vesca is found in all the bordering counties. 



r. bercheriensis, Druce, in Eep. Bot. Exch. Club (1894) 446. 

 ? F. vesca x chiloensis. 



Native. Septal. Hedge-banks. Kare. P. May-June. 

 First recorded by the author in 1894. 



4. Kennet. Near Tidmarsh, 



5. Loddon. Sonning Cutting. Near Bowsey Hill, Tufnail. Near 



Windsor Park. In a hedge-bank, which is the border of a park 

 near Haines Hill. 



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. dumetorum, Jord. in Jordan and 

 Fourreau's Icones (t. xxvi) ad Florae Europae, but F. dumetorum belongs to 

 the group of J", collina, which has an erect calyx appressed to the suc- 

 culent receptacle ; in F. bercJieriensis they are reflexed as in F. vesca, 

 from which it is distinguished by its much larger size, by the 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 pro- 

 minent leaf-veins, the calyx somewhat resembles chiloensis. From 

 F. chiloensis it may be distinguished by its much smallers flowers and 

 fruits. In the shade form of F. vesca, illustrated by the var. sylvatica 

 in Herb. Fl., Ingricae, the plant is npt 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 Bot. Exch. Club in 1894 ; the 

 editor, the Eev. W. K. 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. Comparative cultivation 

 is needed before we can decide definitely if the plant I have 



