FRAGA'RIA*.

Linnean Class and Order. IcoSA'NDRIA †, POLYGY'NIA. Natural Order. Rosa'CEE, Juss. Gen. Pl. p. 334.-Sm. Gram. of Bot. p. 171.-Lindl. Syn. p. 88.; Introd. to Nat. Syst of Bot. p. 81.-Rich. by Macgilliv. p. 528.-Loud. Hort. Brit. p. 512.-Don's Gen. Syst. of Gard. and Bot. v. ii. p. 523.-Mack. Fl. Hibern. pt. 1. p. 85.—ROSALES; sect. ROSINE; subsect. ROSIANE; type, RoSACEÆ; subtype, FRAGARIDÆ; Burn. Outl. of Bot. v. ii. pp. 614, 683, 699, & 700.-SENTICOsÆ, Linn.

GEN. CHAR. Calyx (see fig. 1.) inferior, of 1 flat, permanent sepal, deeply divided into 10 spreading segments, the 5 alternate ones external and smallest. Corolla of 5 roundish, spreading petals (fig. 2.), attached to the rim of the calyx by their short claws, opposite to its outer segments. Filaments (see fig. 1.) numerous, from the rim of the calyx, awl-shaped, upright, shorter than the corolla, permanent. Anthers roundish, incumbent, of 2 cells, deciduous. Germens (fig. 4.) superior, numerous, roundish, small, collected into a round head. Styles, 1 to each germen (see figs. 6 & 7.), lateral, short, incurved, permanent. Stigmas simple, blunt. Berry (fig. 5.) spurious, formed of the enlarged receptacle of the seeds become pulpy, coloured, egg-shaped or roundish, abrupt at the base, finally deciduous. Seeds (nuts of HOOKER and LINDLEY; carpels of DoN,) numerous, naked, scattered over the surface of the large fleshy receptacle or berry, roundish egg-shaped, acute, smooth and even (see figs. 6 & 7).

The 10-cleft calyx; the corolla of 5 petals; and the seeds or nuts being placed on the surface of a large fleshy, deciduous receptacle; will distinguish this from other genera in the same class and order. Three species British.

FRAGA'RIA VE'SCA. Eatable Strawberry+. Wood Straw

berry.

SPEC. CHAR. Leaflets plicate, thin, pubescent beneath. Fruit pendulous. Calyx at length reflexed. Hairs of the Peduncles widely spreading; those of the pedicels close-pressed, silky.

Eng. Bot. t. 1524.-Linn. Sp. Pl. p. 708.-Huds. Fl. Angl. (2nd ed.) p. 221.-Willd. Sp. Pl. v. ii. pt 11. p. 1090.-Sm. Fl. Brit. v. ii. p. 546.; Engl. Fl. v. ii. p. 414.-With. (7th ed.) v. iii. p. 630.-Gray's Nat. Arr. v. ii. p. 584.-Lindl. Syn. p. 95.-Hook. Brit. Fl. p. 250.- Lightf. Fl. Scot. v. i. p. 267.-Sibth. Fl. Oxon. p. 160.-Abbot's Fl. Beat. p. 112.--Davies' Welsh Bot. p. 51.-Purt. Midl. Fl. v. i. p. 245.-Relh. Fl. Cant. (3rd ed.) p. 203.-Hook. Fl. Scot. p. 162.-Grev. Fl. Edin. p. 115.--Fl. Devon. pp. 87 & 172.-Johnst. Fl. of Berw. v. i. p. 115.—Winch's Fl. of Northumb. and Durh. p. 35.-Don's Gen. Syst. of Gard. and Bot. v. ii. p. 542.-Walker's Fl. of Oxf. p. 144.-Bab. Fl. Bath. p. 15.-Loud. Encyclop. of Gard. (new edit. 1835) p. 939. parag. 5131.-Baxter's

Fig. 1. Calyx and Stamens - Fig. 2. A Petal.-Fig. 3. A Stamen.-Fig. 4. Receptacle and Germens divested of the calyx and corolla.-Fig. 4. The Ripe Fruit, formed of the enlarged fleshy receptacle of the seeds.-Figs. 6 & 7. Seeds. -Figs. 3 & 7 a little magnified.

* From fragans, fragrant; on account of the fragrance of the fruit.
+ See Prunus cerasus, folio 100, note †.

From the ancient practice of laying straw between the rows of plants, to

Lib. of Agricul. and Hort. Knowl. (2nd ed.) p. 563.-Mack. Catal. of Plants of Irel. p. 49.; Fl. Hibern. pt. 1. p. 92.-Fragaria, Ray's Syn. p. 254.--Johnson's Gerarde, p. 997.

LOCALITIES. Woods and thickets; and on hedge-banks and heaths; common. Perennial.-Flowers in May, June, and July.

Root somewhat woody, blackish, fibrous; throwing out long, slender, trailing, hairy runners above ground, which take root at intervals, and produce new plants. Stems from 4 to 8 inches high, upright, slightly leafy, clothed with soft spreading hairs. Leaves mostly radical, on long channelled, hairy footstalks, ternate; leaflets egg-shaped, serrated, pubescent beneath, the 2 lateral ones unequal at the base. Flowers panicled, or somewhat cymose, white, upright, their common stalks (peduncles) clothed with copious spreading hairs; their partial ones (pedicels) with upright or closepressed silky pubescence. Segments of the Calyx, especially the smaller or external ones, often cloven at the point. Fruit drooping, egg-shaped, deep scarlet, pulpy, studded with the small smooth seeds or nuts.

The fruit (which is the fleshy receptacle of the seeds become enlarged and pulpy) is fragrant, gratefully acid and aromatic, and from its cooling quality is particularly acceptable in Summer. Eaten either alone, or with sugar and cream, there are few constitutions with which strawberries, even when taken in large quantities, 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 promote perspiration, and dissolve the tartarous incrustations of the teeth. Persons afflicted with the gout or stone have found relief from using them very largely; and HOFFMAN says, he has known consumptive people cured by them, The bark of the root is astringent.

Many varieties of the Wood Strawberry are cultivated in gardens. Mr. NEILL informs us, in his Horticultural Tour in Flanders, Holland, and France, p. 210, that at the Hague, Leyden, and Haarlem, the native species, Fragaria vesca, is preferred for culture, and is there very generally known by the name of Boskoeper strawberry, from the circumstance of the plants being procured from the woods at Boskoop. It is found to possess, with proper treatment, the property of continuing very long in fruit, like the Alpine Strawberry in England. At Haarlem, the fruit is sometimes gathered for nine months in succession, from March till November; but it is to be understood, that different lines of the plants have been dressed at different periods of the season, and that attention has been paid to watering the rows during the parching droughts in summer. The culti vated plants are regarded as exhausted after the second year; they are therefore rooted up and destroyed, and a new supply is obtained from Boskoop.

Two minute, parasitic fungi, Arégma obtusátum, Hook. Brit. Fl. v. ii. pt. 11. p. 359; and Uredo Potentillárum, ibid. p. 382; are found, occasionally, on the leaves of this species of Fragaria; but they are both much more common on the leaves of Potentilla Fragariastrum.

Mr. NELSON, a very intelligent man, and an excellent gardener, who has, for nearly 40 years, had the management of the gardens of A. GRIMES, Esq. of Coton House, near Rugby, in Warwickshire, informed me, in 1831, that the Hautboy strawberry, Fragaria elatior, was growing wild in the plantations and spinnies about that place, in such abundance, that he usually procured it from thence to cultivate in his garden.

FRDel.

Gnaphalium dicicum Mountain Cadwred

Pub by W Baxter, Botanic Garden.Oxford. 1837.

CMathers.Sc.

GNAPHALIUM*.

Linnean Class and Order. SYNGENE'SIA †, POLYGA'MIA, SUPE'RFLUA+.

Natural Order. COMPO'SITE§; tribe, CORYMBI'FERE||, Juss.Lindl. Syn. pp. 140 & 142.; Introd. to Nat. Syst. of Bot. pp. 197 & 199.-Mack. Fl. Hibern. p. 142.-COMPO'SITE; subord. CARDUA'CEE; Loud. Hort. Brit. pp. 520 & 521.-SYNANTHE'RE.E, Rich. by Macgilliv. p. 454.-CORYMBI FER.E, Sect. 1. Juss. Gen. Pl. p. 177.-Sm. Gram. of Bot. pp. 121 & 123. Engl. Fl. v. iii. p. 334.-SYRINGALES; subord. ASTEROSE; sect. ASTERINÆ; subsect. ASTERIANE; type, ASTERACEA; Burn. Outl. of Bot. pp. 900, 901, 920, 924, & 926.-COMPOSITÆ, Linn.

GEN. CHAR. Involucrum (common calyx) (fig. 1.) roundish, imbricated; scales (see fig. 2) membranous, often coloured, converging. Corolla compound; florets of the disk perfect, tubular; their limb 5-cleft (see figs. 3 & 4); some in the very centre occasionally abortive, being destitute of stamens, and often of corolla also; florets of the circumference, if present, slender, or awl-shaped, mostly undivided. Filaments (see figs. 5 & 6.) 5, hair-like, short. Anthers in a cylindrical tube (see fig. 5). Germen (see fig. 4.) inversely egg-shaped, angular. Style (fig. 7.) thread-shaped, the length of the floret. Stigmas 2, spreading, notched. Seed-vessel none, except the permanent shining coloured calyx. Seeds inversely egg-shaped, small, alike, and usually perfect, in all the florets. Pappus (down) (figs. 4 & 8.) either simple, or variously feathery. Receptacle (fig. 9.) naked.

Distinguished from other genera, (with the corolla of the marginal florets obsolete, or wanting,) in the same class and order, by the imbricated, filmy, coloured scales of the involucrum; the awl-shaped florets of the circumference, when present; the rough, or feathery pappus; and the naked receptacle.

Eleven species British.

GNAPHA'LIUM DIO'ICUM. Diacious Cudweed. Mountain Cudweed. Mountain Cotton-weed. Mountain Cat's-foot.

SPEC. CHAR. Shoots procumbent. Stems unbranched. Rootleaves spathulate. Corymbs simple, terminal. Flowers diœcious; inner scales of the involucrum (fig. 2.) elongated, obtuse, coloured.

Engl. Bot. t. 267.-Linn. Sp. Plant. p. 1199.-Huds. Fl. Angl. (2nd. ed.) p. 360.Willd. Sp. Pl. v. iii. pt. III. p. 1882.-Sm. Fl. Brit. v. ii. p. 869.; Engl. Fl. v. iii. p. 413. With. (7th ed.) v. iii. p. 926.-Hook. Brit. Fl. p. 356.-Lightf. Fl. Scot. v. i. p. 470. t. 20. f. 1.-Sibth. Fl. Oxon. p. 250.-Davies' Welsh Bot. P. 77.-Purt.

Fig. 1. Involucrum.-Fig. 2. A inner Scale of the Involucrum.-Figs. 3 & 4. Separate Florets, with their pappus.-Fig. 5. Stamens and Pistil.-Fig. 6. A separate Stamen.-Fig. 7. Germen, Style, and Stigmas.-Fig. 8. A single Ray of the Pappus.-Fig. 9. Receptacle.-Figs. 4, 5, 6, 7, & 8, more or less magnified.

* From Gnapheus. Gr. a fuller; certain species being soft and woolly as the nap of cloth and, according to some writers, used as a substitute for cotton or flax, in filling couches and mattresses, and hence denominated Cotton-weed. WITHER. + See folio 91, note t. + See folio 36, note .