a grass. That this was done some centuries since, we know from a passage in Browne's "Pastorals": "The wood-nymphs oftentimes would busy be, Which for a favour to this swain they sent." As Professor Burnett, however, remarks, the word is more likely to be a corruption of stray-berry, from the trailing or wandering of its runners, which stray to great distances from the parent plant, and establish colonies all around. John Lydgate, who died in 1483, writes the word straberry, in his poem called "London Lyckpenny;" but the orthography of words in those days was too uncertain to afford much ground for ascer taining exactly their origin, and the poet would have been likely enough, had he been writing the word a year after, to spell it in some other way. The strawberry is much cultivated both in our own country and also in those of the Continent. In the Isle of Jersey the plants are covered over during cold weather with layers of seaweed, a plan which is said to increase the size and goodness of the fruit. Several species have been introduced into this kingdom, and our woodland fruit affords, under culture, several varieties of white and red strawberries. Mr. T. Hudson Turner, in a paper on the state of Horticulture in England some centuries since, says, "Strawberries and raspberries rarely occur in early accounts, owing probably to the fact that they were not cultivated in gardens, and known only as wild fruits. Strawberries are named once in the Household Roll of the Countess of Leicester for the year 1265. The plant does not seem to have been much grown even at the end of the sixteenth century. Lawson speaks of the roots of trees being 'powdred' with strawberries, red, white, and green. Raspberries, barberries, and currants, he describes as grown in borders. Both fruits, being indigenous, were probably to be found plentifully in the woods of ancient times, and thence brought to market, as they are in the present day in Italy and the other parts of Europe." We find one of Ben Jonson's personages saying And we know that in the time of Henry VIII. strawberries were sold at fourpence a bushel. Tusser, who wrote in the latter part of this reign, says, in his Advice to the Farmer "Wife, into the garden and set me a plot In earlier times than these, however, they were occasionally cultivated in gardens. Hollinshed, who furnished Shakspeare with many materials for his poems, describes a scene which the great bard afterwards dramatised. Ely-place, Holborn, was the ancient site of the stately palace, then the London residence of the Bishops of Ely, and there the grass waved green over meadows, and the vine trailed over walls, and strawberries grew in garden borders. The old historian, referring to the conduct of Richard III. when Duke of Gloucester, on the morning of the execution of Lord Hastings, in 1483, has this graphic passage:-" On the Fridaie (being the 13th of June) manie lords assembled in the Tower, and there sate in councell, devising the honourable solemnitie of the King's coronation, of which the time appointed then so neere approached, that the pageants and subtilties were in making day and night at Westminster, and much vittels killed that afterwards was cast awaie. These lords sitting together, communing of this matter, the Protector came in among them, first about nine of the clocke, saluting them courteouslie, and excusing himselfe that he had beene from them so long, saicing merrilie that he had beene a sleepe; that daie, after a little talking with them, he said unto the Bishop of Ely, 'My lord, you have verie good strawberries in your garden in Holborne, I require you let us have a messe of them.' 'Gladly, my lord,' quoth he; 'would God I had some better thing as ready to your pleasure as that!' And therewithall in all hast he sent his servant for a mess of strawberries." Nothwithstanding this, however, Morton, the then bishop, was, with others, taken prisoner, as suspected of being opposed to the plans then forming. The strawberry, frequent as it is now, is still prized both in its wild and cultivated state; many could say with Hurdis "We often wander at the close of day Along the shady lane or through the woods, To pluck the ruddy strawberry, or smell Or haply rifles from the new-made rick The hay's sweet odour, or the sweeter breath Of farmer's yard, where the still patient cow In the coffee-houses at Paris a very pleasant beverage, called bavaraise à la Grecque, is made of the strawberry. 2. F. elátior (Hautboy Strawberry).—Calyx of the fruit spreading, or turned backwards; hairs of the general and partial flower-stalks spreading. Plant perennial. This species is usually admitted into the list of British plants, but it is not indigenous. It is, however, found, though rarely, in copses and hedges of the south of England, having more hairy foliage than the wood strawberry, and being a larger plant. The white flowers expand from June to August, and it is remarkable for bearing in some cases blossoms which, having stamens only, produce no fruit. This is the case with the plant also in the garden; and strawberry cultivators are therefore careful to exclude the plants with barren flowers. This species grows on the high woods of Bohemia ; hence its name of Hautboy, which is a corruption of Hautbois. Some of the Alpine fruits have, like the Pine Strawberry (F. collina), a sweeter flavour than any others except the different hautboys. Numerous varieties of the garden strawberries are also obtained from the American species (F. Virginica), and from the F. grandiflora of Surinam; and the Bishop's strawberry, the American scarlet strawberry, the Garnstone's scarlet, the Hudson's Bay, Melon, and Roseberry strawberries, are all well-known varieties of the American species; while the Black Prince, Bullock's Blood, and others, are varieties of F. grandiflora. The black and blush Chili strawberries are derived from F. Chiloensis, a South American species, which produces some of our largest and richest fruits. Many writers believe that all the species from which they are said to be derived are one and the same in reality, assuming different forms and qualities under different circumstances of soil and situation. The chief supply of strawberries for the London markets is derived from Twickenham and Isleworth and, as a writer on this fruit has observed, "one of the most remarkable instances of the power of the human body to endure great and continued fatigue, is shown by the strawberry women, who, during the season, carry a heavy basket twice daily from Twickenham to Coventgarden, walking upwards of forty miles. Fatigue like this would soon destroy a horse, but these Cambro-Britons, who come purposely from the Welsh collieries, endure the labour for weeks without injury or complaint." St. Pierre's observations on the number of insects which are nourished by a strawberry plant are very interesting. He had placed one of these plants near his window, and was amused by observing that in the course of three weeks no less than thirty-seven species visited the strawberry, and at length they came in such numbers and variety that he desisted from attempting to count or describe them. They were, he says, distinguished from each other by their forms, colours, and manners. "Some," says St. Pierre, "were of the colour of gold, others of silver, and others of bronze; these |