288. 



SUNFLOWER. 



for the same purpose ; hence the English name of straw- 

 berry.* But I think that leaves of trees that have been 

 collected in the spring, and kept under cover, are better 

 than either, and particularly the oak-leaf ; because, when 

 they are no longer wanted to protect the fruit, and keep 

 the moisture in the ground, they can be dug in round the 

 stools, vihere they serve as most excellent manure for this 

 delicious fruit. 



The strawberry may also be propagated by seeds. 

 Knight, in making experiments, with a view of ascer- 

 taining whether most of the sorts would not breed togeth- 

 er indiscriminately, raised above four hundred varieties, 

 " some very bad, but the greater part tolerably good, and a 

 few very excellent.^' The fruit of above a dozen sorts was 

 sent to the Horticultural Society [in London] in August, 

 1818, and found of various degrees of excellence. The 

 seeds, if sown immediately after gathering, will produce 

 plants which will come into bearing the following year.— 

 Loudon. 



" Use. — The fruit is fragrant, (w^hence fragaria^) deli- 

 cious, and universally esteemed. It consists almost entirely 

 of matter soluble in the stomach, and neither there nor 

 when laid in heaps, and left to rot^ does it undergo the ace- 

 tous fermentation. Hence it is very nourishing, and mnj 

 be safely eaten by gouty and rheumatic persons. ' In ad- 

 dition to its grateful flavour, the subacid juice has a cooling' 

 quality, particularly acceptable in summer. Eaten either 

 alone, or with sugar and cream, there are few constitutions 

 with which strawberries, even when taken in large quanti- 

 ties, are found to disagree. Further, they have properties 

 which render them, in most conditions of the animal frame, 

 positively salutary ; and physicians concur in placing them 

 in their small catalogue of pleasant remedies. They dis- 

 solve the tartareous incrustations of the teeth. They 

 promote perspiration. Persons aiflicted with the gout have 

 found relief from using them very largely ; so have patients 

 in cases of the stone ; and Hoffman states, that he has 

 known consumptive people cured by them. The bark of 

 the root is astringent.' — Ahercrombie.'^'^ — Loudon. 



SUNFLOWER. — Helianthus annuus. — This plant is a 

 native of South America, but naturalized and become com- 



* This name is common in all the northern countries, while in France, and 

 countries south, it is said they take their name from their flavour, or the botani- 

 k q\ name fragaria. 



