C 2197 ]
FRAG A R I A elatior.
Hautboy Strawberry,
I C O S A N D R I A P o l y g y n i a .
Gen. Char. Cal. inferior, in 10 segments. Petals 5.
Receptacle of the seeds ovate, pulpy, deciduous.
Seeds smooth.
Spec. Char. Calyx of the fruit reflexed. Hairs of
the foot-stalks, and of all the flower-stalks, widely
spreading, somewhat deflexed.
Syn. Fragaria elatior, Ehrh. Beitr. fasc. 7. 23, Willd,
Sp. PL v. 2 .1091. Sm. in Rees’s Cyclop, v. 15. n. 4,
F. et fraga. Lob, Jc. v. 1 . 697. Ger. era,. 997. jf. 2 ,
F. major et minor. Fuchs. Hist. 853,
(xATHERED, certainly wild, in a wood on the west side of
Tring, Hertfordshire, by Mr. Dickson, Mr. Jackson and Mr.
Anderson; also in Charlton forest, Sussex, by Mr. W, Bor-
rer. Ours was an autumnal specimen, flowering in Septem-*
her. We have in vain tried to get wild fruit, which it seems,
is rarely produced. Even in a garden indeed it is never plentiful,
owing to the plants being in effect dioecious, or having
imperfect stamens from one root, and abortive pistils from
another.—This F r a g a r i a appears to have been confounded by
modern European botanists in general with the v e s c a , or
Common Wood Strawberry, t . 1524, but Ehrhart, paying
attention to the pubescence, distinguished them, It is a
larger plant, and essentially differs in having the hairs of the
partial flower-stalks widely spreading, or even deflexed;
whereas in v e s c a they are erect, or generally close-pressed,
giving such stalks a silky or silvery aspect, while those of the
main stalks spread in both species. This difference the wooden
cuts of the old authors plainly indicate. See the books
above cited, and Brunfelsius’s exquisite figure of F . v e s c a ,
v. 2. 35. Our t. 1524 unhappily is faulty in this respect,
from our not having then attended to the subject.
The fruit of F . e l a t i o r is the real Hautboy, of a dark livid
red, very round, and with a musky perfume, not the Carolina
or Chili Strawberry, vulgarly called Hautboy in London.