By Mr. James Barnet. 



161 



A most abundant bearer, ripening very early. The fruit is 

 nearly globular, of moderate or rather small size, when ripe a 

 rich bright scarlet colour ; the seeds are deeply imbedded ; 

 the intervals sharply ridged ; the flesh is solid, pale scarlet ; 

 the flavour peculiar, and though sharp, pleasant. The calyx 

 small, spreading, sometimes reflexed. The leaves are opaque ; 

 the footstalks tall, slender, very erect, reddish in summer, 

 afterwards becoming green, almost smooth ; the leaflets of 

 moderate size, oblong-ovate, with an uneven surface, coarsely 

 and bluntly serrated, pale green. The runners are produced 

 very early, they are numerous, small, and of a reddish colour. 

 The scapes are very variable in length, erect, numerous, some 

 long, others half the length of the leafstalk, others shorter, 

 hairy, with weak peduncles ; flowers very small, opening later 

 than some others, and producing short stamens, with appa- 

 rently imperfect anthers. 



The chief excellence of this Strawberry is that it is the 

 earliest of all the sorts, ripening at least a week before the 

 Old Scarlet, and though the berries are individually small, yet 

 they are plentiful, and being borne clear from the ground, 

 are less damaged by wet than many other kinds. When pre- 

 served it is excellent both in colour and flavour. 



8. Sir Joseph Banks s Scarlet Strawberry. This variety 

 was received from the garden of Lord Bagot, at Blithfield, 

 whose gardener, Mr. Robert Buck, obtained it about ten 

 years ago from the Rev. William Rastall, of Newark in 

 Nottinghamshire ; he received it from Sir Robert Heron, 

 of Stubton in Lincolnshire, to whom it was given by the late 

 Sir Joseph Banks, as a Neiv Scarlet. Thus its present 

 VOL. VI, y 



