664 THE STRAWBERRY. 
ing shrubs, of remarkably luxuriant growth, which may be trair- 
ed for a great length in a season, and are admirably adapted fo. 
covering walls and unsightly buildings. The flowers are like 
small double roses, and are produced in numerous clusters is 
June, having a very pretty effect. North of New York these 
climbers are rather tender in severe winters. 
The Rosz Frowrrine Bramere (Rubus odoratus) is a very 
pretty native shrub, with large broad leaves, and pleasing rose 
coloured flowers, and groups well with other shrubs in ornamen 
tal plantations. 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
THE STRAWBERRY. 
Fragaria (of species) L. Rosacee, of botanists, 
Frasier, of the French; Erdbeerpfianze, German; Aadbezie, Dutch; Pianta 
di Fragola, Italian; and Fresa, Spanish. ~ 
Tue Strawberry is the most delicious and the most whole- 
some of all berries, and-the most universally cultivated in all 
gardens of northern climates. It is a native of the temperate 
latitudes of both hemispheres,—of Europe, Asia, North and 
South America; though the species found in different parts of 
the world are of distinct habit, and have each given rise, through 
cultivation, to different classes of fruit—scarlet strawberries, pinr 
strawberries, wood strawberries, hautbois, &c. 
The name of this fruit is popularly understood to have arisen 
from the common.and ancient practice of laying straw between 
the plants to keep the fruit clean. In the olden times, the vari. 
ety of strawberries was very limited, and the garden was chiefly 
supplied with material for new plantations from the woods. 
Old Tusser, in his “ Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry,” 
points out where the best plants of his time were to be had, and 
turns them over with an abrupt, farmer-like contempt of little 
matters, to feminine hands :— 
a “Wife, into the garden, and set me a plot, 
With strawberry roots, of the best to be got; 
Such growing abroad, among thorns in the wood, 
Well chosen and picked, prove excellent good.” 
The strawberry belongs properly to cold climates, and though 
well known, is of comparatively little value in the south of 
.Europe. Old Roman and Greek poets have not, therefore, sung 
its praises; but after that line of a northern bard, : 
“A dish of ripe strawberries, smothered in cream,” 
