3 8 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES 



There are three kinds of flowers: female producing much fruit, 

 complete less fertile flowers, and male flowers. Hermaphrodite and 

 female flowers may occur on the same umbel, and hermaphrodite and 

 female flowers on different umbels, and similar combinations with male 

 flowers. 



As the stigmas mature before the anthers the plant is cross- 

 pollinated as a rule. The honey is secreted and concealed by a narrow, 

 fleshy ring at the base of the tube, and is protected by the stamens and 

 outer carpels. The petals spread out horizontally, and insects alight 

 on the central disk. If an insect should alight on the petals, it thrusts 

 its head between the stamens and touches the stigmas. It would 

 be self-pollinated if both were mature at once, but the stamens ripen 

 later, and the anthers open and expand into a flat disk, narrowing 

 the intervening space so that flies cannot reach the nectaries without 

 touching the anthers, which open at their edge, and are covered with 

 pollen along the latter only. Pollen falls on the stigmas if insects do not 

 visit the flowers. The visitors are Empis, Eristalis, Syrphus, Melith- 

 reptus, Rhingia, Syritta, Ant homy ia, Musca, Anthrenus, Meligethes, 

 Dasytes, Malackius, Mordella, Grammoptera, Thrips, Prosopis, 

 Halictus, Andrena, Nomada, Apis, Oxybelus. 



The fruit is an edible, brightly coloured receptacle, with soft outer 

 coat, luscious when ripe, and dispersed by snails, birds, and man. 



The Wild Strawberry is primarily a sand-loving plant, growing on 

 sand soil, but requires also a fair amount of humus soil, and may also 

 be a rocky-soil-loving species. 



The fungi which infest the Strawberry are Sphcsrotheca humuli, 

 Spheerella fragaria, Septoria fragarice. 



The plant is galled by Aphelenchus fragarice, one of the Eel-worms. 

 The flowers are attacked by the Golden Chafer; the fruit by ground 

 beetles, Calathus cisteloides, Harpalus ruficornis, and Pterostichus vul- 

 garis and P. madidus; the leaves by the Clay-coloured Weevil, Recl- 

 leggecl Weevil, Black Vine Weevil, and Strawberry-leaf Weevil ; the 

 roots by the small or garden Swift Moth, and Otiorhynchus picipes, 

 O. tenebricosus, O. sulcatus. The moths Cream Spot Tiger, Arctia 

 villica, Lampronia prelatella, Hesperia malvee, Marbled Carpet, Cidaria 

 russata, Nepticula araiata feed on it. 



Fragarta, Pliny, is from the Latin fraga, meaning strawberries, 

 which is from the Sanskrit ghra, fragrant, and the second Latin name 

 means small, i.e. compared with F. elatior. 



The \Vild Strawberry is called Freiser, Hedge Strawberry, Straw- 

 berry. 



