2o6 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



the plant luxuriates in the moist shade. And truly 

 a feast of wild strawberries is not soon to be 

 forgotten. 



The first scientific name testifies to the fragrancy 

 of the fruit, and vesca denotes its edible character. 



The Wild Strawberry is general in the British 

 Isles, as far north as the Shetlands, and in the High- 

 lands occurs at 2000 ft. It is also a native plant in 

 the Channel Islands. 



The habitat is essentially woodland, as the wild 

 strawberry is a shade-lover. It occurs also in bushy 

 pastures and in hedges and thickets. It is to be found 

 in lowland oakwoods on clay and loam, on siliceous 

 soils in woods formed by the sessile oak. It also 

 grows on limestone in ashwoods, in limestone scrub, 

 on the chalk in beechwoods, on chalk grassland, and 

 in ash oak-hazel, forming societies, on marls. 



The wild strawberry is a good example of a plant 

 which increases by vegetative propagation by means 

 of runners. The plant is of trailing habit. The 

 rootstock is short or long, and woody, with a terminal 

 tuft of leaves. The stolons are continued by an 

 axillary shoot at each rosette, in a sympodial 

 manner. There is a scale between adjoining 

 rosettes. The runners root and form new plants 

 at each node. The leaves are bright green, radical, 

 shortly stalked, downy, with soft, silky hairs, and 

 consist of three leaflets, which are ovate, coarsely 

 toothed, or oblong, plaited, the lateral ones cleft. The 

 stipules have a membranous margin, and are adnate. 



