FRUITS VARIETIES AND CULTURE. 



637 



STRAWBERRY.— (Fragaria.) 



The botanical name of the Strawberry is derived from 

 the delightful fragrance of the ripe fruit. Its common 

 name has arisen from the ancient practice of laying straw 

 between the plants, to keep the ground moist and the 

 fruit clean. This fruit is fragrant, delicious, and univer- 

 sally esteemed. The first offering of the season, in the 

 way of ripe fruit, nothing that conies after it can excel " a 

 dish of ripe strawberries smothered in cream," or fresh 

 from the plant. It is, indeed, the most popular and whole- 

 some of all the small fruits; for, besides its grateful 

 flavor, the subacid juice has a cooling quality peculiarly 

 acceptable in summer. In addition to its excellence for 

 the dessert, it is a favorite fruit for making jams, ices, 

 jellies, and preserves. 



The English wood strawberry was the first brought 

 into cultivation. Says old Tusser, turning over its culti- 

 vation to the ladies, as beneath his attention: 



" Wife, unto the garden, and set me a plot 

 With strawberry plants, the best to be got, 

 Such growing abroad, amid trees in the wood, 

 Well chosen and picked, prove excellent good." 



Plants taken directly from the field into the garden 

 yield at once a tolerable crop. This climate is well 

 adapted to the culture of this fruit, since by giving the 

 plants a due supply of moisture, fruit can be gathered 

 the greater part of the summer and autumn. 



In its natural state, the strawberry generally produces 

 perfect or hermaphrodite flowers; the hermaphrodite are 

 those which have both the stamens and pistils so well 

 developed as to produce a tolerably fair crop of fruit. 

 Cultivation has so affected the strawberry in this respect, 

 that there are now three classes of varieties. First, those 

 in which the male or staminate organs are always per- 



