ARBUTUS. 



ERICIXE^. DECANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 



The common English name is the Strawberry-tree, the fruit 

 being very like the strawberry. Pliny gave the name of Unedo to 

 the fruit of the common Arbutus, because it was so bitter that onhj 

 one could he eaten at a time. — French, le fraisier en arbre, arbousier ; 

 the fruit, arbouse, arboise, or arboust: Italian, albatro, albaro, 

 arbuto, rovo, corbezzolo ; the fruit, corbezzola. 



The Common Arbatus, Ai'butus Unedo^ grows to the 

 height of twenty or thirty feet, and bears branches ver}- 

 near to the earth ; the leaves, which are very similar to 

 those of the bay-tree, remain on all the year, the old ones 

 being driven off in the spring by the shooting of new. 

 The fruit, which is called Unedo, takes a whole year in 

 coming to perfection ; so that in October and November, 

 when the tree is adorned with a profusion of rosy blos- 

 soms, it is also loaded with ripe fruit from the blossoms 

 of the former year. 



The variety with red flowers makes a pretty appear- 

 ance, when intermingled with others ; the outside of these 

 flowers being on their first appearance of a bright red, 

 which, before they fall, turns to purple. The double- 

 flowered variety is not so handsome as the single, for it 

 has only a double row of petals, and bears but Mttle 

 fruit. 



The Common Arbutus is a native of the South of 

 Europe, Greece, Palestine, and many parts of Asia ; and 

 of the west of Ireland, where, as well as in Spain and 

 Italy, the country people eat the fruit. At Padua it is 

 sold in the markets ; and in the earlier ages was a common 



