34 Success with Small Fruits. 



and conflicting opinions of the authorities, the curiosity that I have 

 imagined on some faces. Those who care only for the strawberry of 

 to-day can easily skip a few pages. 



If there were as much doubt about a crop of this fruit as concern- 

 ing the origin of its name, the outlook would be dismal, indeed. In old 

 Saxon, the word was strea^vberige or streowberrie ; and was so named, 

 says one authority, " from the straw- like stems of the plant, or from the 

 berries lying strewn upon the ground." Another authority tells us: 

 " It is an old English practice " (let us hope a modern one also) " to 

 lay straw between the rows to preserve the fruit from rotting on the 

 wet ground, from which the name has been supposed to be derived ; 

 although more probably it is from the wandering habit of the plant, 

 straw being a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon stra, from which we have 

 the English verb stray." Again, tradition asserts that in the olden times 

 children strung the berries on straws for sale, and hence the name. 

 Several other causes have been suggested, but I forbear. I have never 

 known, however, a person to decline the fruit on the ground of this 

 obscurity and doubt. (Controversialists and skeptics please take note.) 



That the strawberry should belong to the rose family, and that its 

 botanical name should be fragaria, from the Latin fragro, to smell 

 sweetly, will seem both natural and appropriate. 



While for his knowledge of the plant I refer the reader to every hill- 

 side and field (would that I might say, to every garden !), there is a pecul- 

 iarity in the production of the fruit which should 

 not pass unnoted. Strictly speaking, the small 

 seeds scattered over the surface of the berry are 

 the fruit, and it is to perfect these seeds that the 

 plants blossom, the stamens scatter, and the 

 pistils receive the pollen on the convex recepta- 

 cle, which, as the seeds ripen, greatly enlarges, 

 and becomes the pulpy and delicious mass that 

 is popularly regarded as the fruit. So far from 

 being the fruit, it is only "the much altered 

 end of the stem" that sustains the fruit or seeds ; 

 and so it becomes a beautiful illustration of a kindly, genuine courtesy, 

 which renders an ordinary service with so much grace and graciousness 

 that we dwell on the manner with far more pleasure than on the 

 service itself. 



The innumerable varieties of strawberries that are now in existence 

 appear, either in their character or origin, to belong to five great and quite 



