times children strung the berries on straws for sale, and hence the
name. Several other causes have been suggested, but I forbear. I have
never known, however, a person to decline the fruit on the ground of
this obscurity and doubt. (Controversialists and sceptics please take
note.)

That the strawberry should belong to the rose family, and that its
botanical name should be fragaria, from the Latin fragro, to smell
sweetly, will seem both natural and appropriate.

While for his knowledge of the plant I refer the reader to every
hillside and field (would that I might say, to every garden!), there
is a peculiarity in the production of the fruit which should not pass
unnoted. Strictly speaking, the small seeds scattered over the surface
of the berry are the fruit, and it is to perfect these seeds that the
plants blossom, the stamens scatter, and the pistils receive the
pollen on the convex receptacle, which, as the seeds ripen, greatly
enlarges, and becomes the pulpy and delicious mass that is popularly
regarded as the fruit. So far from being the fruit, it is only "the
much altered end of the stem" that sustains the fruit or seeds; and so
it becomes a beautiful illustration of a kindly, genuine courtesy,
which renders an ordinary service with so much grace and graciousness
that we dwell on the manner with far more pleasure than on the service
itself. The innumerable varieties of strawberries that are now in
existence appear, either in their character or origin, to belong to
five great and quite distinct species. The first, and for a long time
the only one of which we have any record, is the Fragaria vesca, or
the "Alpine" strawberry. It is one of the most widely spread fruits of
the world, for it grows, and for centuries has grown, wild throughout
Northern and Central Europe and Asia, following the mountains far to