STOWE STRAWBERRY. 



607 



moulding shop, which has seven hydrants, -with 450 

 feet of hose always attached for immediate use. 

 The force of water from the hydrants is sufficient to 

 throw two 4-inch streams over any of the buildings. 

 These hydrants are so constructed as to be quickly 

 reached and used to advantage from either the in- 

 side or outside of the moulding shop. The works, 

 when in full working order, have a capacity of from 

 100 to 200 stoves a day. 



The chief centres of the stove-making industry in 

 the United States, aside from Albany and Troy, al- 

 ready noted, are Boston, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, 

 Buffalo, Louisville, St. Louis, Cleveland, Pitts- 

 burg, Detroit, Chicago, and Kansas City. 



_ " (P. o. ii.) 



STOWE, CALVIN ELLIS (1802-1886), clergyman, 

 was born at Natick, Muss., April 26, 1802. He 

 graduated at Bowdoin College in 1824 and at Andover 

 Seminary in 1828, then becoming a teacher there. 

 In 1831 he was made professor of Greek and Latin 

 in Dartmouth College, and in 1833 accepted a call to 

 be professor of biblical literature in Lane Theologi- 

 cal Seminary at Cincinnati. While there he mar- 

 ried in 1836 Miss Harriet Boecher, whose career has 

 been sketched in Vol. I. in connection with the 

 Beecher family. In 1850 her husband went to Bow- 

 doin College as professor of natural and revealed 

 religion, and in 1852, just as her remarkable work, 

 Uncle Tom's Cabin, was becoming known, he was 

 made professor of sacred literature in Andover Semi- 

 nary. He discharged the duties of this position un- 

 til 1864, when he retired. He died, Aug. 22, 1886. 

 At the beginning of his career he translated, with ad- 

 ditions, Jahn's Hebrew Commonwealth (1828), and 

 Lowth's Lecture* on Hebrew Poetry (1829). He after- 

 ward published a report on Elementary Public In- 

 struction in Europe (1838), and some other works on 

 education. After retiring from his professorship 

 his lectures were summarized in his Origin anil 

 Ilixtm-i/ nf the Booh of the Bible (1867). 



STRAIN, ISAAC G. (1821-1857), naval officer and 

 explorer, was born at Roxbury, Pa., March 4, 1821. 

 In 1837 he entered the navy as midshipman. In 

 1845 he led a small exploring; expedition into the 

 interior of Brazil, and in 1848 he made a personal 

 exploration of Lower California. In 1849 he crossed 

 South America from Valparaiso to Rio Janeiro, and 

 published an account of his journey under the title, 

 TliK Cordillera and Parnpa (1853). In 1850 he was 

 promoted lieutenant and was attached to the com- 

 mission that determined the boundary-line between 

 the United States and Mexico. Afterward he com- 

 manded an expedition to explore a line for a canal 

 across the Isthmus of Panama. The party suffered 

 extreme hardships, losing several of its members, 

 and the heroism Strain displayed first attracted pub- 

 lic attention to him. An account of the expedition, 

 compiled by J. T. Headley, appeared in Harper's 

 MiiU'izine in 1856. In 1856, sailing in the Arctic in 

 the North Atlantic, Strain ascertained by soundings 

 the practicability of a telegraphic cable between the 

 United States and Great Britain. His death, due to 

 exposure on the isthmus, occurred at Aspinwall, 

 May 15, 1857. Among his interesting papers com- 

 municated to the American Geographical Society 

 was one on The History and Prospects of Interoceanic 

 Communication (1856). 



STRAWBERRY, a plant of the order Rosacecr, 

 genus Pragnriii, which bears one of 

 <>t * ue mos ^ delicious of our small fruits, 

 p.^ and is widely cultivated throughout 

 all civilized lands. The name is of 

 Anglo-Saxon derivation, and probably comes from 

 the wandering habit of the plant, being a corruption 

 of time. The strawberry-plant is a stemless, peren- 

 nial herb, with compound leaves of three coarsely 

 serrated leaflets. It multiplies by runners, or un- 



Am Rep. 



derground branches, which form buds and develop 

 roots and leaves, the runner then losing its connec- 

 tion with the parent plant by decaying, so that tho 

 new plant becomes independent. The flowers aro 

 5-petalled, mostly white, with numerous stamens and 

 simple pistils. They are seated on a convex recep- 

 tacle which greatly enlarges in the fruiting season, 

 and becomes pulpy and edible. This swollen recep- 

 tacle, which is popularly considered the fruit, is 

 really only the end of the flower-stem, greatly al- 

 tered, and bearing the real fruit in the ripened ovaries 

 scattered over its surface, or sunk in little depres- 

 sions in the succulent mass. 



The strawberry is found in all parts of the north- 

 era temperate zone and in the mountains of South 

 America, and has several species native to the United 

 States. Of those tho best known is Fragaria Vir- 

 ffiiiinnn, the Virginian or common wild strawberry, 

 which extends from the arctic regions to Florida, and 

 from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains. In this 

 species the loaves are rather long and sharply ser- 

 rate, of a light-green color, the fruit mostly globular 

 and bright-red in color, with deep pits on its surface, 

 in which the seeds are sunk. There are many vari- 

 eties of this species, audit has been described under 

 various names. The cultivated varieties are mostly 

 derived from this species and F. resca, the Alpino 

 or wood strawberry, the common European species, 

 but indigenous also in the northern portions of 

 America, where it extends from tho Atlantic to the 

 Pacific. This species bears rather small flowers, and 

 thin, pale-green leaves, the flower-stalks longer than 

 the leaves. The fruit is small and sweet, parting 

 freely from the calyx, while the seeds are attached to 

 (he surface, and not sunk as in F. Virginiana. This 

 was the first species to be cultivated, there being 

 records of its culture in England more than 400 years 

 ago. Of other American species the most important 

 is F. Cl/ilennis, the Chili strawberry. It is found 

 on the Pacific coast from Oregon southward, and 

 bears very hairy, thick leaflets, with large yellowish- 

 white or rose-colcred flowers, and a fruit sometimes 

 as large as a small hen's egg. It is of a pale color 

 and insipid taste, but has yielded valuable varieties 

 by hybridization. The Indian species, F. Indicn, 

 from upper India, is naturalized in the Southern 

 States. It differs greatly from the other species, 

 and bears showy yellow flowers which give it value 

 as an ornamental plant; but its fruit is dry and 

 tasteless. 



By the abortion of the stamens some species of 

 the strawberry are rendered more or less dioecious, 

 and modern culturists divide the varieties into two 

 classes, the staminate or male, and the pistillate or 

 female. In the latter the stamens are aborted and 

 bear little or no pollen, while the former have usually 

 a small number of pistils. The greatest bearers aro 



Strawberry. 

 Perfect Flower. 



Pistillate. 



mostly of the pistillate variety, but they, being nearly 

 incapable of self-fertilization, are fertilized by plant- 

 ing staminate plants near them. The difference can 

 be readily distinguished when the plants are in 

 blossom, and in selecting plants for this purpose it 

 is necessary to choose varieties that flower about the 

 same time. The present tendency of growers, how- 

 ever, is to discard the unisexual kinds. As regards 



