. Cyclopedia of hardy fruits. Fruit; Fruit-culture. CHAPTER XXIV BOTANY OF THE STRAWBERRY A strawberry is the juicy, edible, spurious fruit of any species of Fragaria, a genus be- longing to the order of Rosaceae. The fruit, as an esculent, is spurious because the edible part is the receptacle which terminates the flower-stalk, the true fruits being the dry achenes borne on the enlarged receptacle. This fruit-like receptacle, when ripe, is a solid, round, pulpy, cone-shaped structure, usually red, about the base of which is a fiat rim to which were attached the floral and reproductive organs.
. Cyclopedia of hardy fruits. Fruit; Fruit-culture. CHAPTER XXIV BOTANY OF THE STRAWBERRY A strawberry is the juicy, edible, spurious fruit of any species of Fragaria, a genus be- longing to the order of Rosaceae. The fruit, as an esculent, is spurious because the edible part is the receptacle which terminates the flower-stalk, the true fruits being the dry achenes borne on the enlarged receptacle. This fruit-like receptacle, when ripe, is a solid, round, pulpy, cone-shaped structure, usually red, about the base of which is a fiat rim to which were attached the floral and reproductive organs. Fig. 293 shows the strawberry flower and fruit. The flowers of the strawberry' are in vary- ing degrees polygamo-dioecious, cross- pollination being usually brought about by insects. In many culti- vated varieties the flowers lack stamens, and fruits do not develop unless pollen is brought from another flower. The strawberry plant is a low, stemless perennial, propagated from stolons which spread over the sur- face of the ground. The white flow- ers are borne in cymes on more or less erect scapes. The radical leaves are made up of three leaflets which are obovate-wedge-form and coarsely serrate. The fruits ripen in late spring or early sum- mer, with sometimes a second crop in the autumn. With this simple outline of the botany of the strawberry- in mind, we are ready to discuss the character and gro\\i:h-habits of the plant which are of importance to po- mologists. For descriptive purjioses the strawberry- plant may be divided into root, stolon, leaf, flower, and fruit. The strawberry-grower must know the gross structure of these organs, not only that he may identify species and varie- ties, but also that he may propagate, trans- plant, and otherwise care for the plants prop- erly. He must know the several species and something of their origin, history, and habits of growth, that he may understand their adap- tations to soils and climates, their relation to strawberry pests, an
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