HERBACEOUS AND WOODY DICOTYLEDONS 403 



Eos ACE AE (Ross FAMILY) 



The rose family comprises over 14,000 species, including an 

 unusually large number of ornamental, food-producing, and fruit- 

 producing varieties of great value and importance to man. The 

 family is also noted for the great variation in its species as re- 

 gards habit, since it includes all types of plants from acaulescent 

 herbs, like the potentil- 

 las and strawberries, to 

 shrubs and trees, like 

 the roses proper, the 

 spireas, and the apples, 

 pears, and plums. 



In the treatment of 

 the following represent- 

 ative species emphasis 

 will be placed largely 

 upon reproduction and 

 fruit formation, since 

 this is the distinctive 

 feature of the rose 

 family which is of the 

 greatest interest and 

 importance. 



FRAG AKI A (STRAW- 

 BERRY) 



Courtesy of American Magazine of Forestry, Washington, D.C. 



FIG. 254. Habit and flowers of the 

 American strawberry 



Photograph by Dr. R. W. Shufeldt 



Habit and history. 



The cultivated straw- 

 berry is a direct de- 

 scendant of one of the 



wild strawberries, and its large size and greatly improved fruit 

 is due to cultivation and breeding by man during the last fifty 

 years. Professor L. H. Bailey, a recognized authority on the 

 evolution of our native fruits, ascribes the origin of our present 

 varieties of cultivated strawberries to the improvement of a wild 

 species from Chile, known as the Chilean strawberry (Fragaria 



