There are a good many kinds of Strawberry, natives of the north
temperate zone and the Andes. They are perennials, with running stems,
rooting at the joints; the flowers white, or rarely pink, with slender,
often drooping pedicels, forming loose clusters; the flower-stalks
springing from tufts of root-leaves, which have three, toothed leaflets
and a pair of sheathing stipules at the base of the long leaf-stalk;
the sepals five, alternating with sepal-like bractlets; the petals
five, with short claws and not notched; the stamens numerous, with
slender filaments; the receptacle roundish or cone-shaped, becoming
enlarged, red and juicy, in fruit, bearing minute, dry akenes,
scattered over its surface, or set in pits. Fragum is the Latin name
for strawberry, meaning "fragrant."
[Sidenote: =Wood Strawberry=
_Fragària bracteàta_
=White
Spring, summer
West=]
A slender little plant, growing in light shade, in rich soil, along
streams, in rocky woods and producing runners very freely. The stipules
are papery and reddish, the thin, dull-green leaves are slightly
silky on the upper side, when young, and the leaflets are sharply and
coarsely toothed, somewhat wedge-shaped, broad at the tips, the two
side ones uneven at base. There is usually a little bract, halfway up,
on both the flower-stalk and the leaf-stalk. The flowers are nearly an
inch across, with fuzzy, bright yellow centers, and the fruit is light
red, with a good flavor, somewhat cone-shaped, the akenes scattered
over its smooth, shining, even surface and but slightly attached to it.
[Sidenote: =Sand Strawberry=
_Fragària Chiloénsis_
=White
Spring, summer
Wash., Oreg., Cal.=]
A charming plant, a few inches tall, with thick, glossy, dark green
leaves, paler and hairy on the under side, and pure-white flowers, with
bright yellow centers. They are about an inch across and are well set
off by the masses of dark foliage. This has large, delicious berries
and grows abundantly on beaches and sand dunes near the sea, from San
Francisco to Alaska. It is often cultivated.
[Illustration: Sand Strawberry--Fragaria Chiloensis.]
PEA FAMILY. _Fabaceae_.
A very large family, including many important plants, such as
Clover, Alfalfa, Peas, and Beans; herbs, shrubs, vines, and trees,
distinguished principally by the flower and fruit, resembling the
butterfly-like corolla and simple pod of the common Pea; leaves
alternate, usually compound, with leaflets and stipules; calyx
five-toothed or five-cleft; petals five. The upper petal, or
"standard," large, covering the others in the bud, the two at the sides
standing out like "wings," the two lower ones united by their edges
to form a "keel," enclosing the stamens, usually ten, and the single
pistil with a curved style; the ovary superior.
There are numerous kinds of Anisolotus, widely distributed, common,
difficult to distinguish; mostly herbs, some slightly shrubby; leaves
with two or many, toothless leaflets; calyx-teeth nearly equal;
petals with claws, free from the stamens, wings adhering to the keel,
incurved, blunt or beaked; stamens joined by their filaments, in
two sets of one and nine, anthers all alike; style incurved; pods
two-valved, often compressed between the seeds, never inflated.
These plants have several common names, such as Bird-foot, Trefoil,
Cat's-clover, etc., and are called Crowtoes by Milton.
[Sidenote: =Pretty Bird-foot=
_Anisolòtus formosíssimus (Lotus) (Hosackia)_
=Pink and yellow
Spring
Wash., Oreg., Cal.=]
A gay and charming kind, with smooth stems, spreading on the ground,
light green leaves, with five or more leaflets, and flowers about half
an inch long, with a golden-yellow standard, pink or magenta wings and
wine-colored keel, forming a flattish cluster, the contrasting colors
giving a vivid effect. This grows in damp places along the sea-coast.
[Sidenote: =Bird-foot=
_Anisolòtus argyraèus (Lotus) (Hosackia)_
=Yellow
Spring
California=]
A shrubby, branching plant, a foot and a half high, forming a pretty
clump, two or three feet across, with downy, gray-green stems and
foliage, sprinkled with clover-like heads of yellow flowers. The
leaflets are slightly thickish, covered with silky down, the twigs
and young leaves silvery-white. The small flowers are a soft shade of
warm-yellow, and the buds form neat, fuzzy, silvery balls. This grows
on dry hillsides in the Catalina Islands.
[Illustration: Pretty Bird-foot--A. formosissimus.