the Strawberry; a genus of the polygyny order, belonging to the icofandra class of plants. There is but one species, viz. the vesca, or cultivated strawberry. The principal varieties are,

1. The sylvestris, or wood-strawberry, with oval sawed leaves, and small round fruit. 2. The Virginian fesclet, or Virginia strawberry, with oblong oval sawed leaves, and a roundish scarlet-coloured fruit. 3. The moschata, or hautboy, or musky strawberry, having oval, lanceolate, rough leaves, and large pale-red fruit. 4. The Chiloensis, or Chili strawberry, with large, oval, thick, hairy leaves, large flowers, and very large, firm fruit. 5. The Alpina, Alpine, or monthly strawberry, having small oval leaves, small flowers, and moderate sized, oblong, pointed fruit.

All these varieties are hardy, low, perennials, durable in root, but the leaves and fruit-stalks are renewed annually in spring. They flower in May and June, and their fruit comes to perfection in June, July, and August; the Alpine kind continuing till the beginning of winter. They all prosper in any common garden soil, producing abundant crops annually without much trouble. They increase exceedingly every summer, both by offsets or suckers from the sides of the plants, and by the runners or strings, all of which rooting and forming plants at every joint, each of which separately planted bears a few fruit the following year, and bear in great perfection the second summer. Those of the Alpine kind will even bear fruit the same year that they are formed. All the sorts are commonly cultivated in kitchen-gardens, in beds or borders of common earth, in rows lengthwise 15 or 18 inches distance; the plants the same distance from one another in each row. Patches of the different sorts disposed here and there in the fronts of the different compartments of the pleasure ground, will appear ornamental both in their flowers and fruit, and make an agreeable variety.

Strawberries, eaten either alone, or with sugar and milk, are universally esteemed a most delicious fruit. They are grateful, cooling, lubricant, and juicy. Taken in large quantities, they seldom disagree. They promote perspiration, impart a violet smell to the urine, and dissolve the tartarous incrustations on the teeth. People afflicted with the gout or stone have found relief by using them very largely; and Hoffman says, he has known consumptive people cured by them. The bark of the root is astringent.—Sheep and goats eat the plant; cows are not fond of it; horses and swine refuse it.