90 



Flowers and their Pedigrees. 



allied East Indian forms with digitate leaves, cultiv- 

 ated in our flower-gardens, the Nepaul potentilla and 

 the purple potentilla, have risen as far in the scale of 

 coloration as crimson and deep red. 



One may sum up the common points of the 

 strawberry and the barren strawberry somewhat as 

 follows : Both have tall leaves of three leaflets, raised 

 on an elevated leaf-stalk, whereas most of their other 

 congeners have many leaflets. Both have white 



Fig. 20. 

 Fruit of Wild Strawberry. 



Fig. 21. 

 Fruit of White Potentilla. 



flowers, whereas most of their other congeners have 

 them yellow. Both have short tufted stems ; in both 

 the leaves are clothed with silky down ; and in both 

 the leaflets are regularly toothed at the edge in the 

 self-same manner. On the other hand, they differ 

 from one another almost exclusively in the matter of 

 their fruit. Now, as we shall proceed to see, it is com- 

 paratively easy to produce the change whereby a dry 

 fruit becomes a succulent one, and it is also compara- 



