THE ROSE FAMILY. 239 



VIRGINIA STRAWBERRY. 



F7'agaria V^irginiana. 



Flozvers : growing with long, often recurved, bractecl pedicels on hairy scapes. 

 Calyx : persistent, with five pointed lobes surrounded underneath by five pointed 

 bracts, and being scattered with silky white hairs. Petals : five, obovate, rounded, 

 with very short claws. Stamens: numerous. Fruit: an ovoid, pulpy and scarlet 

 lierrv. Leaves: from the base ; tufted; with very long, densely-hairy petioles 

 and siieathed with membraneous stipules; three-foliate. Leaflets: obovate, 

 roundjd at the apex, the terminal one wedge-shaped at the base, dentate, becom- 

 ing entire; ciliate and having both surfaces scattered with silky, white hairs. 

 Scape : erect, hairy, naked. 



We all know the wild strawberry plants and the simple loveliness of their 

 tlowersas they blow among the more common herbs of the pasture. Unob- 

 trusively they live their lives near those in sympathy with them ; the lively- 

 yellow fine fingers and the white and purple violets. All of their blossoms 

 are as wild and sweet as any wildings, but a little gathered bunch of them 

 droops lamentably in the hand. Still these plants have been extensively 

 carried away for cultivation. Close to the ground they cling spreading 

 themselves by runners. Thus they travel and increase their numbers. It 

 has, in fact, been claimed that through this habit of straying, the " straberry," 

 as in earlier Anglo-Saxon it was spelled, received its name. 



In spite of the skill which we know to have been expended in producing 

 strawberries of great size and excellence, it must still be conceded that they 

 are lacking in much of the sweet fragrance and lusciousness of these small 

 wild ones. 



THREE=TOOTHED CINQUEFOIL. 



Potoitilla tridetttata. 



Flo7uers : small ; growing in terminal and northward cymes and having bractcd 

 and pubescent pedicels. Calyx: persistent; with five lanceolate pubescent lobes 

 which alternate with an under row of five bracts. Petals : five ; obovate ; con- 

 siderably larger than the sepals. Stamens : numerous. Leases : three-foliate, 

 with lanceolate stipules; those clustered about the base with long petioles and 

 oblanceolate leaflets, rounded, or squared at the apex where they show three, 

 rounded teeth; dark green and lustrous above, lighter below and hairy. Stem 

 leaves often entire and becoming small and bract-like. Stem: two to ten inches 

 high, shrubby, branched, pubescent. 



Through our range it is only on the bare, rocky summits of such high 



