Ths amiable St. Pierre was about to write a general history 

 of nature, but was dissuaded from his design by examining a 

 Strawberry plant which grew in his window. In this single 

 object he found so much to learn and to admire, that he de- 

 sisted from his extensive plan, as beyond the powers of even the 

 longest life and highest faculties, and instead of it produced his 

 admirable work, The Studies of Nature, in the first few pages 

 of which we find an animated description of the Strawberry. 



Pluck not its flowers, my young friends, and thus destroy its 

 promised fruit, but observe how Wordsworth pleads for it. 



*' Strawberry blossoms, one and all, 



We must spare them here are many. 



Look at it, the flower is small, 



Small and low, though fair as any. 

 " Pull the Daisies, Sister Anne, 



Pull as many as you can : 



Fill your lap, and fill your bosom ; 



Only spare the Strawberry blossom. 

 " Daisies leave no fruit behind, 



When the pretty flow'rets die ; 



Pluck them, and another year, 



As many will be growing here. 

 " GOD has given a kindlier power 



To the favor'd Strawberry flower : 



When the months of Spring are fled, 

 Hither let us bend our walk, 



Lurking berries ripe and red, 

 Then will hang on every stalk. 



Each within its leafy bower, 



And for that promise spare the flower." 



It is not to please the eye, and gratify the palate alone, that 

 the Strawberry is esteemed ; it is valuable as a medicine, puri- 

 fying and cooling the blood, and it is said to be one of the best 

 remedies for the gout, and that the great Linnaeus himself was 

 cured by it. 



te eects o cuture, or rom , an rom anoer, u a oreg 

 , are derived all the large and delicious varieties brought to table 



CINQUE-FOIL. POTENTILLA. 



SILVER- WEED. Potentilla anserina. 



Plate 7, fig. 4. 



Leaves pinnate, silky. Stem creeping. Fl. solitary, yellow. 

 On road-sides, rubbish heaps, &c., flowering all the summer. 



