almost all the rich varieties which at present exist in the land.
There are doubtless many among the inhabitants of our towns and cities
who have never gathered or seen the strawberry in its wild state; and
many, very many more who are wholly unacquainted with the peculiar and
interesting structure of this fruit and its allies--the raspberry,
blackberry, dewberry, and their congeners. The plant which bears the
strawberry, whether the wild or garden species, is an herb with
three-partite leaves, notched at the edge with a pair of largo
membraneous stipules at their base. When growing, this plant throws
out two kinds of shoots--one called _runners_, which lie prostrate on
the ground, and end in a tuft of leaves--these root into the soil, and
then form new plants--and another growing nearly upright, and bearing
at the end a tuft of flowers which produce the fruit. The calyx, which
is flat, green, and hairy, is divided into ten parts, called sepals,
and there are five petals; the stamens, which are very numerous, and
grow out of the calyx, are placed in a crowded ring round the pistil.
This pistil consists of a number of carpels, arranged in many rows
very regularly on a central receptacle; each carpel has a style,
ending in a slightly-lobed stigma; and an ovary, wherein lies one
single ovule, or young seed. The course of the transformation of this
apparatus into fruit is highly curious and interesting. First, the
petals fall off, and the calyx closes over the young fruit;
immediately the receptacle on which the carpels grow begins to swell,
and soon after the carpels themselves increase in size, and become
shining, whilst their styles begin to shrivel. The receptacle
increases in size so much more and faster than the carpels, which soon
cease to enlarge at all, that they speedily begin to be separated by
it, and the surface of the receptacle to become apparent. In a little
time, the carpels are completely scattered in an irregular manner over
the surface of the receptacle, which has become soft and juicy, and
has all along been pushing aside the calyx, which finally falls back
almost out of sight. The receptacle finally assumes a crimson colour,
grows faster and faster, and becomes sweet and fragrant. Those which
we commonly call the seeds of the strawberry, then lie on the surface,
and these, if carefully examined, will prove to be the carpels
containing the seeds in a little thin shell like a small nut. The
strawberry i