STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 273 



seems to be the finochi, or Italian fennel, stated by Switzer,' 1729, to have but recently 

 been introduced to English cultvire and yet rare in 1765.- The first distinct mention is 

 by Mawe,' 1778, under the name of Azorian Dwarf or finocchio. It is again described 

 in a very perfect form by Bryant/ 1783, under the name of Sweet Azorian fennel. Accord- 

 ing to Miller's Dictionary, 1807, it is the F. azoricum Miller, 1737. Ray, 1686, uses the 

 name Foeniculum duke azoricum, but his description is hardly svifficient. Finocchio is 

 described for American gardens in 1806.^ It does not seem to have entered general cul- 

 ture except in Italy. The type of this fennel seems to be figured by J. Bauhin, 165 1, and 

 by Chabraeus, 1677, under the name Foeniculum rotundum flore alho. 



Fragaria. Rosaceae. strawberry. 



The Latin word for the strawberry, Fraga, has given name to the botanical genus 

 Fragaria, which includes our edible species. Ruellius, 1536, says the French word fresas 

 was applied to the fruit on account of the excellent sweetness of its odor, adore suavissimum, 

 and taste; in 1554, this was spelled /rayse^ by Amatus Lusitanicus, but the modem word 

 /raise appeared in the iovm. f raises, in Fuchsius, 1542, and Estienne, 1545. The Italian 

 fraghe and fragole, as used by Matthiolus, 1571, and fragola as used by Zvingerus 1696, 

 and the modem Italians, appear to have come directly from the Latin; while the Spanish 

 fresa and fresera must have had the same immediate origin as the French. Some of the 

 ancient commentators and botanists seem to have derived the Latin name from fragrans, 

 sweet-smelling, for Turner in his Libellus, 1538, says "fragum non jragrum {ut quidam 

 scioli scribunt)," and Amatus Lusitanicus, 1554, writes fragra. The latter quotes Servius, 

 a grammarian of the fifteenth century, as calling the fruit terrestria mora, earth mul- 

 berry, (or, following Dorstenius who wrote in 1540, "fructus terrae et mora terrestria)," 

 whence the Spanish and Portuguese murangaos, (the modem Portuguese moranguoiro) . 

 The manner of the fruit-bearing, near the ground, seems to have been the character of 

 the plant more generally observed, however, than that of the fruit, for we have Virgil's 

 verse, " humi nascentia fraga," child of the soil, and Pliny's epithet, "terrestribus fragis," 

 ground strawberry, as distinguishing from the Arbutus unedo Linn, or strawberry tree, 

 as also the modem vernacular appellations, such as the Belgian eertbesien, Danish jordbeer, 

 German erdbeere, Netherland aerdbesie, while even the English strawberry, the Anglo- 

 Saxon streowberie, spelled in modem fashion by Turner in 1538, is said to have been derived 

 from the spreading nature of the nmners of the plant, and to have come originally from 

 the observed strewed, anciently strawed, condition of the stems, and reading as if written 

 strawedberry plant. It was called straeberry by Lidgate in the fifteenth century. 



The classical history of the strawberry can be written very shortly. Virgil refers 

 to the " humi nascentia fraga " in his third Eclogue; Ovid to the "arbuleos fructus mon- 

 tanaque fraga " in his Metamorphoses, book I, v. 104, as furnishing a food of the golden 



' Switzer Raising Veg. 1 729. 



' Stevenson Card. Kal. 46. 1765. 



* Mawe and Abercrombie Univ. Card. Bot. 1778. (Anethum azoricum) 



* Bryant Fl. Diet. 53. 1783. 



* Ray Hist. PI. 458. 1686. 



* McMahon, B. Amer. Card. Cat. 199. 1806. 



