WILD STRAWBERRY 



37 



in shady lanes where broad banks are overhung by trees or herbage, 

 where moisture is uniform but not too abundant. It is seen at its 

 best, however, and in greatest profusion, in those natural (or may be 

 artificial) glades in woods where, in additional to continual moisture, 

 light and sunshine are regularly diffused. 



The wild plant is a much smaller form of the garden type, but 

 closely resembling it in habit. It is freely stoloniferous, and the radical 



WILD STRAWBERRY (Fragaria vesca, L.) 



Photo. Rev. C. A. Hall 



leaves are trifoliate, with serrate margins, sessile. The stolons are a 

 foot or more long. 



The flowering stems or scapes are clothed with down which is 

 made up of spreading hairs, and are borne in axils of the radical 

 leaves. The hairs on the pedicels are closely appressed. The calyx 

 is reflexed in fruit. The receptacle is large and convex, and here is 

 the source of the so-called berry. It is pulpy or succulent, bearing 

 the numerous achenes, which are hard, and usually regarded as the 

 seeds. 



The Wild Strawberry is rarely more than 8 in. in height. The 

 flowers are in bloom in April and May. The W T ild Strawberry is 

 perennial, and besides the stolons which spread it, it is propagated 

 by seeds. 



