Strawberries. 83 



totally distinct genus Fragaria ; and they imply, 

 therefore, that the differences between the real straw- 

 berry and the barren strawberry are far greater than 

 the differences between the barren strawberry and the 

 other potentillas. I hope in the sequel to show, how- 

 ever, that it would be far easier to develop a straw- 

 berry out of a white potentilla than to develop a 

 white potentilla itself out of any one among its yellow 

 allies ; and therefore that the systematic classification 

 is a faulty one, and the popular classification a 

 correct stroke of half-unconscious scientific intuition. 



The potentillas are a group of very lowly and 

 primitive roses, the earliest and simplest surviving 

 members of the great and world-wide rose family. 

 Our common English cinquefoil may be accepted as 

 a good typical instance of the whole group. Cinque- 

 foil is a pretty tufted creeping plant, whose small 

 golden flowers, like yellow roses in miniature, star the 

 waste grass-plots by the sides of lanes and highways 

 everj'where in Britain during the summer and autumn 

 months. Its leaves, as the very name denotes, con- 

 sist of five separate spreading leaflets, all springing 

 from a common point, and radiating round it as a 

 centre like the fingers of a hand. The flowers, as 

 usual in most very simple and primitive plants are 

 bright golden yellow, and they closely resemble the 



