cer, rickets, and scrofula. It exercises a deep
and slow action, such as is remedially brought to bear by the
Bethesda waters of America, and the powdered oyster shells of Sir
Spencer Wells.

The fresh infusion should be steadily taken, a tea-cupful three times
daily, for weeks or months together. It may be made with a pint of
boiling water to an ounce of the fresh herb. Likewise, the fresh plant
should be boiled and eaten as "greens," so as to secure medicinally
the insoluble parts of the silica. This further serves against albumen,
and sugar in the urine.

[537] STONE CROP (_See House Leek, page 273_).

STRAWBERRY.

Properly, our familiar Strawberry plant is a native of cold climates,
and so hardy that it bears fruit freely in Lapland. When mixed with
reindeer cream, and dried in the form of a sausage, this constitutes
Kappatialmas, the plum pudding of the Polar regions.

"Strawberry" is from the Anglo-Saxon _Strowberige_, of which the
first syllable refers to anything strewn. The wild woodland
Strawberry (_Fragaria vesca_) is the progenitor of our highly
cultivated and delicious fruit. This little hedgerow and sylvan plant
has a root which is very astringent, so that when held in the mouth it
will stay any flow of blood from the nostrils. Its berries are more
acid than the garden Strawberry, and make an excellent cleanser of
the teeth, the acid juice dissolving incrustations of tartar without
injuring the enamel.

A medicinal tincture is ordered (H.) from the berries of this
Woodland Strawberry, which is of excellent service for nettle rash,
or allied erysipelas: also for a suffocative swelling of the
swallowing throat. "_Ipsa tuis manibus sylvestri nata sub umbraa:
mollia fraga leges_," says Ovid. An infusion of the leaves is of
excellent service in Dysentery.

It is incorrect to call the fruit a berry, because the edible,
succulent pulp is really a juicy cushion over which numerous small
seeds are plentifully dotted; whilst the name Strawberry is a
corruption of Strayberry, in allusion to the trailing runners,
which stray in all directions from the parent stock.

Being of very ancient date, the Strawberry is found widely diffused
throughout most parts of the world. [538] Among the Greeks its
name _Komaros_, "a mouthful," indicated the compact size of the
fruit. By the Latins it was termed _Fragaria_, because of its delicate
perfume.

Virgil ranked it with sweet-smelling flowers; Ovid gave it a