STRAWBERRY, Fragarta, a genus of plants of the natural order rosacea, suborder roseee, tribe remarkable for the manner in which the receptacle increases and beemnes succulent, so as to form what is popularly eslled the fruit; the proper fruit (botanically)being the small achenia which it bears upon its surface. The genus differs from potentakt (q.v.) chiefly in having the receptacle succulent. The calyx is 70-cleft, the segments alternately smaller; the petals are five; the style springs from near the base of the carpel. All the species are perennial herbaceous plants, out runners to form new plants; and the leaves are generally on long stalks, with three leaflets, deeply toothed. One South American species has simple leaves. Only one species, the Woon STRAWBERRY, (F. ram), is truly a native of Britain. It is common in woods and thickets. Its-fruit is small, but of delicious flavor. Another species, the HAUTBOIS STRAWBERRY (P. elatior), is not unfrequently to be seen in woods and hedges, but has probably escaped from gardens. It is really a native of North America. The many- kinds cultivated in gardens are regarded as varieties of these species, and of the CAROLINA STRAWBERRY (F. Carolimana), the PINE STRAWBERRY (if; grandifora, or F. ananas), and the CHILI STRAWBERRY (F. Chilensi4 American species, the leaves. and fruit of which are larger than those of the wood strawberry. In no genus, how ever, are the species more uncertain to which tha cultivated kinds are to be referred. Some of these are remarkable for the large size of the fruit. New varieties are contin wally coming into notice, and the utmost care is necessary to keep the larger and finer varieties from degenerating. The cultivation of the straw berry is most extensively carried on in Britain and in Belgium. New kinds are produced from seed; but planta tions of strawbenies are generally formed of the young plants, which are abundantly produced by runners. The “3ws are from 18 in. to two ft. apart, according to the kind.
The finest fruit is said to be produced when the plants are kept distinct from each in the rows, but this is not generally done. Tilas are sometimes placed around the plants and under the fruit; and it is an old English practice to lay straw between the rows, to preserve the fruit from rotting on the wet ground, from which the name straw berry has been supposed to lie derived; although more probably it is from the wander ing habit of the plant, straw being a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon state, from which, we have the English verb stray. Strawberry beds require to be renewed after a few years. Strawberries are often forced in hot-houses, in order to produce the fruit at a. very early season. The uses of the strawberry as a dessert fruit and for preserves are well-known. There is no more wholesome fruit.
The ALPINE STRAWBERRY (F. collina), a native of Switzerland and Germany, differs considerably from the other kinds in its taller stems and more erect manner of growth.
7 .• fraft, «hicb is either red or white, is not very large, but is produced in great .a.amdance, and unlike other strawberries, parts from its calyx almost on being touched. The Alpine strawberry continues to produce fruit long after the other kinds.
The INDIAN STRAWBERRY (F. Indira), a native of the Himalaya, requires only a little protection in Britain from severe frost, and with this care grows luxuriantly and pro 'dimes fruit in abundance. The flowers are yellow, not white, as in other strawberries, and are not produced upon common flower-stalks rising from the center of the plant as in the other species, but upon single-flowered stalks, which spring from the tails of the leaves upon the runners. The fruit is very beautiful, growing with its apex up ward. It is not, however, of good quality.