"Then unto London I dyde me hye,
Of all the land it bearyeth the pryse;
'Gode pescode,' owne began to cry—

Strabery rype, and cherrys in the ryse."" It is mentioned by Hollinshed, and the fact has been dramatised by Shakspeare, that Glo'ster, when he was contemplating the death of Hastings, asked the bishop of Ely for strawberries :

"My lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn,

I saw good strawberries in your garden there." The palace and garden of the bishop occupied the site which is now Ely-place.

The cultivation of the strawberry, at the present time, is very extensive in the neighbourhood of London. The largest quantities, and the finest sorts, are grown at Isleworth and Twickenham. One of the most remarkable examples of the power of the human body in the endurance of great and continued fatigue, is shewn by the strawberry women, who, during the season, carry a heavy basket on the head twice daily from Twickenham to Covent Garden, walking upwards of forty miles. Fatigue like this would soon destroy a horse; but these women, who come purposely from Wales and the collieries, endure the labour for weeks, without injury or complaint.

The common wood strawberry (which was probably the earliest cultivated) has the leaves rather small, the runners (at the joints of which the new plants are produced) slender, and often of a purple colour. The fruit is small, and generally red, but without much flavour, owing to its being shaded from the sun. When brought out of the shade, or in countries where the influence of the sun is more powerful, both its size and flavour are very much improyed; and though not the handsomest, it becomes far from the worst of the cultivated sorts. There is a variety of the wood strawberry a good deal paler, both in the leaves and the fruit, than the one now

mentioned, which also ripens later in the season; but it is by no means productive, and is accordingly not much cultivated.

The Alpine strawberry is, in its native situation, a more vigorous plant, and produces larger and more highly flavoured fruit than the common one of the woods. It is often much darker in the colour than any of the other strawberries; and when it is so, the flavour has a sharpness bordering upon austerity.— Still, however, it is an excellent fruit; and it has this advantage, that it continues bearing from June until stopped by the frost; and, in very open seasons, fruit has been gathered from it at Christmas.

The Hautbois was the first known of the larger variety of strawberry. Its history has never been well ascertained, though it is generally believed to be the mountain strawberry of Bohemia, and to have been first improved by cultivation in France. The hautbois is very productive; and the fruit is highly flavoured, with a peculiar kind of perfume; but some care is necessary in order to prevent the plants from degenerating. The name of this strawberry is probably derived from the circumstance of the scape which bears the fruit standing higher than the leaves, and, consequently, being called hautbois (high wood). It is not improbable, however, that its original locality in the high woods of Bohemia may have suggested the name. In the old gardening books it is written hautboy.

In the early part of the last century, the Alpine strawberry of Chili was introduced into the Royal Gardens at Paris, and from thence found its way over many parts of Europe. It grew to a very large size, and had a finer colour than the hautbois; but in the southern countries of Europe it was soon neglected, because it ran greatly to leaves, produced comparatively little fruit, and what it did produce was defi

cient in flavour. The old scarlet strawberry," which was an original introduction from North America, has been an inhabitant of our gardens for nearly two hundred years. The "old black strawberry," an unproductive sort, has been long known in England. The "Chinese" and the "Surinam" strawberries are of considerable antiquity amongst us. The" old pine, or Carolina," has been cultivated and highly prized by the English growers, for many

years.

Since attention began to be paid to the culture of strawberries, the number of varieties has been greatly increased. The British strawberries are divided into scarlet, black, pine, hautbois, green, alpine and wood, according to a classification in a valuable paper in the sixth volume of the Horticultural Transactions. Of these varieties, the pine is the most esteemed. It is a native of Louisiana and of Virginia. Its colour is a deep red on both sides; and it is the most rich and highly flavoured of all strawberries, constituting the most valuable variety that has yet been discovered.

THE BARBERRY-Berberis vulgaris.

This tree is a native originally of the eastern countries, though it is now found in most parts of Europe, where it thrives best upon light and chalky soils. It grew formerly wild, in great quantities, in the hedgerows of England, but has been universally banished, from a general belief that its presence is injurious to the growth of corn. Duhamel, Broussonet, and other scientific writers, treat this belief as a vulgar prejudice. It should, however, be remarked, that the fructification of the barberry is incomplete, unless the stamens be irritated by insects when the filaments suddenly contract in a most remarkable manner towards the germ. The flowers are, therefore, by a beautiful arrangement of nature,

a. Elder-berry. b. Cloud-berry. c. Bramble-berry.

d. Bilberry.

peculiarly attractive to insects; and thus the barberry may become injurious to neighbouring plants. The berries grow in bunches, and are so very acid, that they are seldom eaten; but with the requisite quantity of sugar they make an excellent jelly.

The elder is a native of this country; is very generally diffused; grows with singular rapidity, though it never arrives at great size; and endures the most bleak situations, though in the northern parts of Scotland the fruit seldom ripens. The berries of the elder are fermented into a wine, which, when spiced and drunk warm, is a pleasing winter beverage. They are supposed to contain a portion of the narcotic principle. The black variety is chiefly cultivated for this purpose; but the berries of the yellow and green are also applicable to wine making. There is also an elder flower wine, with a flavour resembling Frontignac.

The elder-tree furnishes the unscientific practitioner of the healing art with many of the most

approved remedies; and perhaps not without reason. Boerhaave, the great physician, is said to have regarded the elder with such reverence, for its medicinal virtues, that he sometimes took off his hat in passing a tree of this species.

THE BRAMBLE-Rubus fruticosus.

Though the bramble is rather annoying with its long trailing stems and its sharp thorns, the fruit, commonly called blackberry, is perhaps in its wild state (and it does not need to be cultivated) among the best, and certainly it is the most abundant, of our native berries. The bramble prefers a soil that is moderately good; but, it is found in every situation, except marshes, to the borders of which it creeps very close. On the slopes of the Welsh mountains, more especially in Denbighshire, the bramble berry grows to the size of a middling gooseberry; and in a dry and sunny autumn is really an excellent fruit. Pliny mentions the mulberry growing on a brier, which probably was a fine blackberry. In England there are a number of species confounded under the names of rubus fruticosus, and rubus corylifolius, that vary very much in the quality of their fruit, some of them really deserving cultivation. The family of brambles is divided into those with upright stems, those with prostrate stems, and those with herbaceous stems.

There is another species of bramble, the Arctic or Dwarf crimson (Rubus arcticus.) This is a small species, and a native of the coldest regions of the world. Its fruit, however, is exceedingly delicious; and were it possible to cultivate it in any habitable situation, it would be a most important addition to garden berries. We have not heard of its ever having been found either in England or in the Welsh mountains; and in Scotland it grows only in the most wild and elevated situations. Some of the