CLASS XII. OBDEll III.] COMARUM. 737 



are now cultivated, which ripen their fruit at dilTerent periods of the 

 summer, and, by management, the table may be supplied from the 

 garden during the summer monlhs, and with a little care and atten- 

 tion, together with the assistance of the hothouse, through all the months 

 of the year. 



Few fruits are of more easy cullivalion than the Strawberry, most 

 varieties requiring an open situation and a rich rather strong loamy 

 soil, and until the fruit is set an abundant supply of moisture. It is 

 usual to scatter round the plants a thin layer of straw, which is a 

 means of preventing so great an evaporation of moisture from the 

 roots, and keeps the fruit freer from sand and dirt, from the splashing 

 of the rain ; from this circumstance it is said to have derived its name 

 of Strawberry. 



As a fruit, few, if any, are more wholesome ; it is not liable to 

 turn acid on the stomach like some other kinds, and is excellent whether 

 taken alone, or with sugar, cream, or wine, or, as it often is, in various 

 ways made with sugar into conserves or sweetmeats. 



GENUS XIII. CO'MARUM.— Linn. JUarsh Cinque-foil. 



Nat. Ord. Rosa'ce^. Jdss. 



Gen. Char. Calyx ten cleft, five outer alternate segments, smaller 

 patent. Petals five. Carpels numerous, small, inserted into a 

 large dry spongy receptacle. Styles lateral, deciduous. — Name 

 from x.o/x«foj, a term applied by the ancients to some of the 

 Arbutus tribe. 

 1. C. pains' tre, Linn. (Fig. 835.) Purple Marsh Cinque-foil. 

 English Botany, t. 172. — English Flora, vol. ii. p. 434 — Hooker, 

 British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 206. — Potentilla comarum. Scop. — De 

 Cand, Prod. 2. p. 583 — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 97. — P. palustris, 

 Lehmaun. 



Root with long creeping underground stems, and long fibrous 

 branches. Stetn ascending, round, reddish, leafy, about a foot high, 

 mostly branched and paniculated above, smooth below, downy above. 

 Leaves pinnate, the lower ones on long footstalks, channeled, and much 

 dilated at the base into a sheathing coriaceous stipule, the petioles of 

 the upper leaves short, with stipules, ovate lanceolate, leaflets five to 

 seven, sessile, or on very short stalks, oblong lanceolate, deeply and 

 sharply serrated, green above and smooth, beneath pale, and more or 

 less clothed with silky hairs. Flowers not very numerous, in terminal 

 branched spreading panicles, each on a slender round long downy 

 peduncle. Calyx ten cleft, the five outer alternate ones small, linear, 

 the five larger ones ovate lanceolate, with a tapering point, a dark 

 purplish red colour, as well as the small lanceolate petals. Stamens 



