QUEER STRAWBERRIES. 
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berry ; it is no great bearer, but those it doth beare, are set 
at the toppes of the stalks close together, pleasant to behold, 
and fit for a Gentlewoman to weare on her arm, &c., as a 
raritie in stead of a flower.” 
Some years after, Merrett, in his Pinax (1666), says he found 
it growing “ in the woods of Hyde Park and Hampstead.” The 
detailed history of this plant is given by Dr. Hogg in a foot-note 
to my Vegetable Teratology (p. 276); suffice it to add that it fell out 
of notice to such an extent that the distinguished poniologist just 
referred to spoke of it as a “ botanical dodo,” and many persons 
looked upon the plant in the same light as on the mythical Mrs. 
Harris. Some few years ago, when increased notice began to be 
paid to old-fashioned flowers, the “dodo” was re-discovered, and 
it may now be found in botanic gardens and in the gardens 
of the curious. In this variety the petals are green and leafy, 
and the “ pips ” develop in the shape of tiny green leaves pro- 
jecting from the surface of the receptacle, which ultimately 
becomes fleshy and coloured as in an ordinary strawberry. I 
have mentioned this “ Plymouth strawberry ” by way of intro- 
duction to the specimen figured on the opposite page. 
In the construction of a flower there is a general plan or 
principle. We may differ in opinion as to what that plan is, 
how it comes about, and what is its precise significance ; but 
that there is such a plan, modified according to circumstances — 
perhaps in direct consequence of them — no one doubts. Re- 
duced to its simplest expression, we have in a flower a central 
“ axis,” from which all the other parts spring ; that central axis 
is clearly the prolongation of the flower-stalk, which is, of course, 
nothing but a branch. The parts of the flower that spring from 
this axis— sepals, petals, stamens, and carpels — originate in the 
same way as the leaves, are arranged in the same manner, have 
at first the same structure, and very often are themselves de- 
veloped as leaves. The term “ metamorphosis ” is apt to 
