112 THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA 



varieties. From the Latin name there have come the 

 Spanish Freza and the Italian Planta di Fragola. In the 

 Spanish of South America it is Fnitilla, or little plant. 

 The French call it Fraisier from the name of the French- 

 man who introduced the Chilean species into Europe. 

 The German name is Erdberre, or earth berry. 



i The origin of the English name is in doubt. Some trace 

 it to the ancient custom among children of selling the 

 wild fruit strung on straws. This is mentioned by Browne 

 in his "Britania's Pistoral." "As a boy in Ireland," 

 related a correspondent of The Canadian Horticulturist, 

 in 1884, "I used to string them on what we called 'wind 

 straw,' or straws of timothy grass." Others see in the 

 name a reference to the common use of a straw mulch 

 around the plants. In 1806, Sir Joseph Banks said : * 

 "The custom of laying straw on the strawberry plants 

 when their fruit begins to swell is probably very old in 

 this country; the name of the fruit bears testimony in 

 favor of this conjecture, for the plant has no relation to 

 straw in any other way, and no other European language 

 applies the idea of straw in any shape to the name of the 

 berry or to the plant that bears it." 



It has been suggested, also, that the word refers to the 

 resemblance of the old, dry runners to straw ; or to the 

 fact that the plant is commonly found growing among the 

 straw, or dry, wild grass of old fields. None of these 

 surmises, however, is as plausible as the explanation of 

 the philologist, who concludes that strawberry is from the 

 Anglo-Saxon word "streouberrie," which was first spelled 

 in modern fashion by Turner, in 1538. This was derived 

 from "strae" or "strahen " (to scatter), referring to the 

 erratic habit of the runners in straying or wandering about, 

 Trans. Hort. Soc. of London, Vol. I (1806), p. 54. 



