274 



THE STRAWBERRY-TREE. 



AKBUTUS UNEDO. 



Natural Order EBICACE.E. 



Class DECANDBIA. Order MONOGYNIA. 



THIS beautiful evergreen shrub is better known by its 

 ancient name of Arbutus 1 than by the name which it 

 derives from the fruit to which its berries bear a con- 

 siderable resemblance. It is frequently mentioned by the 

 Latin poets as an ornamental tree, which added much 

 grace to the wild rocky scenery of Italy, affording a 

 shady retreat to the weary traveller, and food to the 

 wild goat. 



Pliny notices the similarity between its fruit and that 

 of the strawberry, for he sajs that it is the only tree 

 which bears fruit like ground-fruit. He also states, but 

 not on his own authority, that in Arabia it attains an 

 extraordinary height, evidently confounding it with some 

 other tree. 



The Arbutus is a native of the mountainous districts of 

 Southern Europe and Northern Africa, and of many parts 

 of Asia. In England it only appears in the shrubbery 

 and park. Among the rocky cliffs of Mount Edgecumbe, 

 in Devonshire, it flourishes in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of the sea, but it never attains the dimensions of a 

 tree. In Ireland it grows in great abundance about the 

 hills and islands of Killarney ; and here it is undoubtedly 

 wild, though unfounded stories are told of its having 

 been introduced by the monks of St. Finnian in the sixth 



1 The correct pronunciation of Arlutus unedo is with the accent 

 on the first syllable of each word. 



