166 Lessons in Fruit Growing, 



The fruit of the strawberry is the expanded receptacle of 

 the flower, and bears the seeds upon its surface in more 

 or less marked depressions. 



The roots of the strawberry spread laterally little farther 

 than the leaves and commonly grow shallow in the soil^ 

 hence the plant is very liable to suffer from drought in 

 summer. 



250. Growth and fruiting haWt. The strawberry com^ 

 monly multiplies from trailing runners, which are slender 

 branches proceeding from the axillary buds of the parent 

 plant that are formed early in the season. Some of the 

 later axillary buds do not form runners, but develop into 

 branches of the main stem, while those formed still later, 

 together with the terminal bud, become flower buds which 

 live over winter and expand early the following season. 

 The runners grow throughout the summer, rooting at the 

 nodes, and the young plants thus formed commonly de- 

 velop flower buds the same year. The following spring, 

 the branches of the main stem above mentioned, develop 

 leaves and runners, and later, other branches and flower 

 buds, and thus the life of the plant is continued from year 

 to year. The very short stem of the strawberry plant is a 

 rhizome of the class known as caudex, which develops 

 largely under ground and which roots at the nodes, the 

 older roots dying as the stem elongates. It follows that 

 the stem tends year by year to project itself above the sur- 

 face of the ground. This probably limits the life of the 

 plant, as new roots develop only from the younger nodes. 

 The plant tends to lose vigor as it increases in age, because 

 the roots continually become shallower in the soil, while 

 the flower buds are more and more exposed to the weather. 



251. Soil. The strawberry thrives on any soil capable 

 of yielding good farm crops, providing it is well fertilized 



