MEMOIES FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 165 



Texas : G. C. Nealley, No. 58. 

 Louisiana : J. F. Joor, 1 874. 



Alabama: A. Winchell, No. 159 ; W. Trelease, 1879 ; Earle & Underwood, 1896 ; B. 

 F. Saurman. 



Florida: Geo. V. Nash, No. 2523, 1895 ; A. H. Curtiss, No. 780. 

 Georgia : A. H. Curtiss, 1875 ; Durand, 1837. 

 North Carolina : G. E. Vasey, 1878 ; W. M. Canby, 1876. 

 Virgiiiia : Eritton & Small, 1893 ; N. L. Britton, 1892. 

 District of Columbia : Mrs. Stevens, 1893. 



Pennsylvania: W. M. Canby, 1865; J. K. Small, 1889; Miss E. G. Knight, 1884 

 Small & Heller; 1891 ; C. E. Smith, 1866. 

 New Jersey : F. E. Lloyd, 1890. 

 Missouri : B. F. Bush, 1892. 



8. FRAGARIA L. 



Fragaria L. Sp. PL 491. 1753. 



Dactyl uphyllum Spenn. Fl. Frib. 3 : 1084. In part. 1829. 



Hjrpanthium almost flat. Bractlets, sepals and petals, normally 5. Petals white, 

 or in one species reddish, broadly obovate, elliptic or almost orbicular, obtuse, never 

 emarginate. Stamens about 20, in three series as in Potentilla, sometimes abortive, closeiy 

 surrounding the base of the receptacle ; filaments short ; anther dehiscent by a longi- 

 tudinal slit. Receptacle hemispheric or conic, bearing very numerous pistils, in fruit be- 

 coming enlarged, very j uicy and delicious in taste. Style filiform but rather short, attached 

 near the middle of the ovary, scarcely deciduous. Seeds ascending and amphitropous. 



The genus consists of perhaps 40 species, natives of Europe, Northern Asia, North 

 America, India and South America. Many species are cultivated for their delicious 

 fruit (the receptacle). They are mostly low plants with a short scaly rootstock and rather 

 numerous, generally ti-ifoliolate basal leaves. The flowering stem is mostly scapose, but 

 some species have on3 or two stem leaves ; these may be similar to the basal leaves, 

 but with shorter petioles, or else only unifoliolate and more or less reduced. The plants 

 propagate by true runners. The flowers of several species have a tendency to become 

 polygamo-dioecious. 



The origin of most of our cultivated varieties is to be traced from F. Chiloensis 

 either directly or through hybridization. Some have been derived from F. grandiflora 

 from Surinam, F. elatior and F. vesca from Europe, and F. Virginiana, a native of the 

 Eastern United States. Many of the varieties generally supposed to have been derived 

 from the latter, must, however, have had their origin from F. Chiloensis. 



