232 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



Fragaria vesca, Linne.* 



Wild Wood- Strawberry. Naturally very widely dispersed over 

 the temperate and colder parts of the northern hemisphere, extend- 

 ing northward to Lapland and Iceland, southward to the mountains 

 of Java, ascending the Himalayas to 13,000 feet [J. D. Hooker], 

 the Scottish highlands to 7,000 feet. From this typical form pro- 

 bably some of the other strawberries arose. Middle forms and 

 numerous varieties now in culture were produced by hybridization. 

 These plants, although already abounding in our gardens, are 

 mentioned here, because they should be naturalised in any ranges. 

 Settlers, living near some brook or rivulet, might readily set out plants, 

 which with others similarly adapted would gradually spread with 

 the current. Unlike many other plants they are not destroyed by 

 bush-fires. Fragarias are in the lowlands of the tropics best treated 

 as annuals to be productive. The minute seeds will retain their 

 vitality for fully three years. A highland-variety, F. alpina (Per- 

 soon), furnishes fruit throughout the warm season, long after the 

 other varieties cease bearing in gardens [Vilmorin]. Dr. Bersch 

 recommends for the preservation of strawberries and any other sort 

 of non-keeping table-fruits a solution of one drachm of salicylic 

 acid and J Ib. of sugar in one quart of water, into which the fruits, 

 without boiling, are simply immersed ; they will thus keep many 

 months. 



Fragaria Virglniana, Duchesne. 



Scarlet Strawberry. Eastern North-America, extending north- 

 ward to 64 [Sir J. Richardson], therefore adapted for the coldest 

 climates also ; yet even fruiting well in Bermuda [Sir J. Lefroy]. 



Fraxinus Americana, Linn.* 



The White Ash. Eastern North- Am erica, extending from Florida- 

 to Canada. A large tree, which delights in humid forests. Trunks 

 have been found 75 feet long without a limb, and 6 feet in diameter 

 [Emerson]. It is the best of all American Ashes and of compara- 

 tively rapid growth. In Nebraska the stem attains to about 32 

 inches circumference at 2 feet from the base in 22 years [Furnas], 

 Resisting extreme heat better than the common Ash. Seeds of 

 this and some other Ashes, unless fresh sown, may lie for a whole 

 year in the ground before germinating. Timber largely exported ; 

 it assumes a red tint in age ; much valued for its toughness, light- 

 ness and elasticity, excellent for work subject to sudden shocks and 

 strains, such as the frames of machines, carriage-wheels, agricul- 

 tural implements, pick-handles, billiard-cues, fishing-rods, handles, 

 chair-rails, shafts, staves, pulley-blocks, balaying-pins and oars ; 

 also for furniture and musical instruments. The young branches 

 are utilised for mast-hoops. The author and Mr. J. G. Luehmann 

 found the strength greater than that of our Blackwood-tree and of 

 many Eucalypts, but not equal to that of E. Leucoxylon, E. 



