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DESCRIPTIVE BOTANY. 



FRAGARIA, (Strawberry.) Tourn. Calyx concave, deeply cleft; 

 sepals or divisions 5 in number, with 5 alternate bractletsj petals 

 obcordate, white and large ; stamens numerous ; styles numerous ; 

 akenes naked, on the surface of a subgiobular, heart-shaped, or 

 irregular pulpy eatable receptacle. Perennial stemless herb. 



1. F. Virginiana, Duchesne. (American Strawberry.) Without stem. 

 Leaves and flower-stalks pubescent ; leaves on long radical petioles, composed 

 of 3 dentate leaflets, lateral ones obhque, nearly sessile ; flower-stalks less hairy 



than the petioles. Flowers in a 

 cyme; calyx erect. Flowers in 

 April ; fruits in May, June, and 

 July. 



2. F. vesca, L. (English 

 Strawberry.) Calyx spreading 

 or reflexed. Akenes superficial, 

 not imbedded in pits in the re- 

 ceptacle. Otherwise as in F. 

 Virginiana. 



By propagating from seeds 

 and by hybridizing, many varie- 

 ties have been produced. Ameri- 

 can nurserymen catalogue about 

 400. 



Geography. — The geographi- 

 cal range of the strawberry is 

 very wide ; in fact, it extends 

 annind the globe. Captain Cook 

 speaks of the fine strawberries 

 he found in great profusion in 

 Kamchatka and Alaska, where 

 they are still found to grow in 

 abundance. 



Etymology. — Fragaria, the 

 generic name Avas given to 

 this- plant by Tournefort, on account of its fragrance ; it is derived from the 

 Latin /ra9?'fl?2s, a pleasant odor. The specific name Virginiana is from the place 

 where it was found native ; and vesca, small, on account of the size of the fruit. 

 The name straicherry is said to have arisen from the circumstance that in 

 England straw was spread around the plants upon the ground for the fruit 

 to rest upon to keep it from the sand and mud. 



History. — There is very little history to this fruit. No mention is made of 

 it until tlie days of Henry VI. of England, the last of the reigning sovereigns 

 of the house of Lancaster, 14.5.3, when a poem appeared which shows that 

 strawberries were known in London at that time. 



It is also related that when Gloster was planning the murder of Hastings, 

 he requested the Bishop of Ely to send him strawberries, and Shakespeare 

 makes him say : — 



" My lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn, 

 I saw good strawberries in your garden there." 



Fragaria vesca (English Strawberry). 



