ARBUTUS. 



KRICINE^E. DECANMRIA MONOGYNIA. 



The common English name is the Strawberry-tree, the fruit 

 being very like the strawberry. Pliny gave the, name of Unedo to 

 the fruit of the common Arbutus, because it was so bitter that o/// 

 one could be eaten at a time. French, le fraisier en arbre, arbousier ; 

 the fruit, arbouse, arboise, or arboust: Italian, albatro, albaro, 

 arbuto, rovo, corbezzolo ; the fruit, corbezzola. 



THE Common Arbutus, Arbutus Unedo, grows to the 

 height of twenty or thirty feet, and bears branches very 

 near to the earth ; the leaves, which are very similar to 

 those of the bay-tree, remain on all the year, the old ones 

 being driven off in the spring by the shooting of new. 

 The fruit, which is called Unedo, takes a whole year in 

 coming to perfection ; so that in October and November, 

 when the tree is adorned with a profusion of rosy blos- 

 soms, it is also loaded with ripe fruit from the blossoms 

 of the former year. 



The variety with red flowers makes a pretty appear- 

 ance, when intermingled with others ; the outside of these 

 flowers being on their first appearance of a bright red, 

 which, before they fall, turns to purple. The double- 

 flowered variety is not so handsome as the single, for it 

 has only a double row of petals, and bears but little 

 fruit. 



The Common Arbutus is a native of the South of 

 Europe, Greece, Palestine, and many parts of Asia ; and 

 of the west of Ireland, where, as well as in Spain and 

 Italy, the country people eat the fruit. At Padua it is 

 sold in the markets ; and in the earlier ages was a common 



