Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/430

 414 STRAWBERRY day and then tied into a knot and immersed in boiling water until they become white, when they are hung up in the shade and afterward bleached for several days. The straw is then distributed through the districts, especially in Peru, where the manufacture is carried on. Whole colonies of Indians are engaged in this manufacture. The men, women, and children plait the straw upon a block of wood which they hold between their knees, finishing an ordinary hat in two or three days; but the finest hats occupy several months to complete them, and require especial care in the selection of the straw and the plaiting. The best are made in Ecuador. STRAWBERRY, a well known wild and culti- vated fruit, the Anglo-Saxon name of which, atreawberige or streowberie, was probably de- rived from the straw-like stems of the plant or from the berries lying strewn on the ground. The several species belong to the genus fraga- ria (from the ancient Latin name fraga), of the rose family ; they are stemless perennial herbs, with compound leaves of three obovate, wedge-shaped, coarsely serrate leaflets, and multiply by runners, which are long weak branches % forming a bud at the end which soon develops roots and leaves, and by the decay of the branch connecting it with the parent be- comes an independent plant. The flowers are in a cyme at the end of an erect scape, with a five-lobed, spreading, persistent calyx, and as many bractlets alternating, and thus appearing ten-cleft ; petals (mostly white) five ; stamens numerous ; pistils simple, seated upon a convex receptacle, which when the ovaries are ripe is greatly enlarged, becoming pulpy and edible, and is popularly regarded as the fruit; it is really the much altered end of the stem (see PLANT), while the true fruits are the small seed-like akenes, the ripened ovaries, which are scattered over its surface or sunk in little depressions. By abortion of the stamens some of the species become more or less dioecious. The strawberry is found in all temperate parts Section of Flower and Fruit of the northern hemisphere and in the moun- tains of South America. While Bentham and Hooker state that there are not more than three or four well defined species, a dozen or more have been described, the plants being, oven in the wild state, very variable, while the varieties in cultivation resulting from hybrid- izing, crossing, and sporting are innumerable. Two species are widely distributed throughout the United States, and one is peculiar to the Pacific coast. The Virginian or common wild strawberry (fragaria Virginiana) is found from arctic America to Florida, and west to the Rocky mountains. Its leaves are rather thick, smooth on the upper surface, often shi- ning ; the hairs silky and appressed ; the calyx erect after flowering; fruit mostly globular, with a narrow neck, and the akenes (seeds) sunken in deep pits in the surface of the re- ceptacle. This has been described under many Alpine Strawberry (Fragaria vesca). different names, as it varies greatly, and the western forms appear very different from the eastern. The Alpine strawberry (F. vesca), the common species of Europe, is indigenous to this country, especially far northward, ex- tending to Oregon and the N". W. coast ; it is found throughout Europe and northern and central Asia. It has thin pale green leaves, the upper surface strongly marked by veins ; flower stalks longer than the leaves ; calyx re- maining open after flowering ; receptacle con- ical or elongated, with the akenes attached to the surface, and not as in the preceding sunk in pits. A taller form is known as the wood strawberry. This was the earliest spe- cies cultivated, and is mentioned in the street cries of London of over 400 years ago; the garden of the bishop of Ely at. Holborn was in 1483 celebrated for its strawberries, a fact alluded to by Shakespeare in "Richard III." A number of varieties of this are cultiva- ted, but they are more popular in Europe than in this country. The Chilian strawberry (F. Chilemis, the F. grandiflora of some) is found on the Pacific coast from Oregon south- ward; it is very robust, with leathery, thick leaflets of a dark green, and sometimes silky on both surfaces, or only below ; the flowers are larger than in any other species, and the large yellowish white or rose-colored fruit, sometimes as large as a small hen's egg, erect. This was introduced into the south of France in 1712, and many valuable varieties resulted