STRAWBERRY PLANT. 

 FRAGARIA. 



In Botany, a Genus of the , Icosamlria Poly- 

 gynia Class. 



THIS most agreeable fruit does not appear 

 to have been cultivated by the ancients ; and 

 it seems only to have grown in the moun- 

 tainous parts of Greece and Italy, the climate 

 being too warm in the other parts of these 

 countries. It is slightly mentioned by Virgil, 

 Ovid, and Pliny, and even the latter author 

 does not mention the fruit as a diet or medi- 

 cine. In speaking of the arbutus-tree, book 

 15, chap. 24, he saysj " the tree is termed the 

 strawberry-tree ;' and .there is not any other 

 tree that gives fruit' which resembles the fruit 

 of an herb growing by the ground/' Again 

 he says, speaking of the bramble-berry, 

 " as the ground strawberry differs in carnosity 

 from the fruit of the arbutus-tree/' 



