☙ Strawberry

Genus Fragaria L. (1753). WFO

Period Breton (brezhoneg): bod-sivi m. LB

Period English: strawberry.

Period French: fraisier m. BD

Fragaria vesca: fraisier des Alpes m.; BD fraisier des bois m.; LB fraisier comestible m.; LB fraisier des quatre saisons m. BD

Period German: Erdbeere f.; A&S ErdbeerblĂŒthe f. (the flower). JRV

Plantagenet English: strawbery; fragum (Promptorium Parvulorum 1440, Catholicon Anglicum 1483); HNE

Tudor English: strawbery (Turner 1548, 1568). HNE

Elizabethian English: straw-berries (Gerard 1597, 1568). HNE

Stuart English: fraise; a stawberrie (Cotgrave 1611). HNE

Sentiments:

🏶︎ BontĂ© parfaitePerfect goodness ◼︎ (1819-c.1825); CLT LA-M

 Perfect goodness ▲︎◆︎ (1825-1869); HP:FE TTA LH S&K RT:LPF

 Perfection ▲︎◆︎ (1839-1850); FS HGA:OT

 Perfect excellence ▲︎◆︎ (1840-1858); TM FSO HGA:LOF

Wild strawberry:

🏶︎ Perfection ▲︎ (1840); TM

Flower:

🏶︎ ParfumPerfume ◼︎ (1811); BD

🏶︎ Foresight ▲︎ (1867); GAL

🏶︎ Wann werde ich dich wiederĆżehen?When will I see you again? ●︎ (c.1880). JRV

Leaves:

🏶︎ Perfection ▲︎ (1824); O&B

Region:

Native: Northern hemisphere excluding Greenland and Iceland, Africa, the Arabian Peninsular, and some further extremities; Guatemala; Argentina South; Chile South and Central; Bolivia.WFO

Introduced: Kenya; Tanzania; Canary Islands; Tunisia; Cape and Northern Provinces; Ivory Coast; Rwanda; Mauritius; RĂ©union; Turkmenistan; Uzbekistan; Jawa; Malaya; Philippines; Sumatera; New Guinea; Aotearoa; Baleares; Pitcairn Island; Brazil South; Trinidad-Tobago; El Salvador; Honduras; Argentina Northwest; Columbia; Ecuador.WFO

Seasonality: Perennial, fruits and flowers spring and summer depending on variety.

Period Colours: TBC.

Heraldry: Usually only used in leaf-form, referred to as frasier; as this is also a Scottish term for cinquefoil, some assert that frasier should be depicted as such. James Parker's glossary gives the following examples:

Sable, on a bend between in chief a greyhound courant bendwise and in base a dolphin haurient argent, three torteaux; a chief of the second charged with three sprigs of strawberry fructed proper—HOLLIST, Midhurst, Sussex.

Azure, three garbs or with a strawberry leaf in the centre—CUMING, Moray, temp. James V.

Azure, three frasiers argent—FRASER, Pitcallain.

Azure, a lion rampant argent crowned with an antique crown or armed and langued gules within a bordure of the second charged with six frasiers of the first—MAC DOUGALL, Mackerston, co. Roxburgh.

Religious: TBC.

Cited Species:

🏶︎ Fragaria chiloensis subsp. lucida (E.Vilm. ex J.Gay) Staudt (1962)

 = Fragaria lucida E.Vilm. ex J.Gay (1857), WFO beach strawberry (mentioned for the 'slightly violet-scented' flowers); HNE

🏶︎ Fragaria moschata Duchesne ex Weston (1771)

 = Fragaria elatior var. magna (Thuill.) Mutel (1834), WFO Hautbois strawberry (mentioned as F. elatior, 'Hautbois strawberry'); HNE

🏶︎ Fragaria vesca L. (1753), WFO woodland strawberry; BD HNE

🏶︎ Fragaria virginiana Mill. (1768), WFO Virginia strawberry. HNE

Cited Verse:

❧ 'Ecloga III', Eclogues, Virgil (c.42 BCE); HNE

❧ Metamorphoses, Book I, Ovid (8 CE) lines 103-104. Read Here; HNE HP:FE

 Phillip's citation is to the same verse in ◆︎ John Dryden's 1717 English translation.

❧ '16. Septembers husbandrie', Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie, ◆︎ Thomas Tusser (1557) paragraphs 26-27; HNE

❧ 'My Lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn, / [...] / Where is my lord Protector? I have sent / For these strawberries.', ◆︎ William Shakespeare, Richard III (c.1592-1594) 3.4.32; HNE

❧ 'Sonnet 64', Amoretti, ◆︎ Edmund Spenser. London: William Ponsonby (1595); HNE

❧ The Faerie Queene, Book VI, ◆︎ Edmund Spenser. London: William Ponsonbie (1596) Canto X, stanza XXXIV; HNE

❧ 'The strawberry grows underneath the nettle / [...] / under the veil of wildness.', ◆︎ William Shakespeare, Henry V (c.1599) 1.1.60; HP:FE HNE

❧ 'Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief / Spotted with strawberries in your wife's hand?', ◆︎ William Shakespeare, Othello (c.1603) 3.3.434; HNE

❧ 'Song 2', Britannia's Pastorals, Book I, ◆︎ William Browne (1613) lines 443-446; HNE

❧ Of Gardens, Essay 46, The Essays or Covnsels, Civill and Morall, ◆︎ Francis Bacon. London: Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret (1625) pp.266-279, paras.I-II; HNE

❧ The Garden of Eden, or, An accurate description of all flowers and fruits now growing in England [etc], ◆︎ Hugh Plat. London: William Leake (1654) vol.1, paragraph 20. Read Here; HNE

 A posthumous republication of his 1608 Floraes Paradise.

❧ My Lady Ludlow, ◆︎ Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, first published Household Words (1858) Read Here; HNE

 Quotes earlier Bacon citation directly, and seems to imply ability to smell strawberry leaves inherited and only present in some individuals, explaining - as he notes - HNE's inability to smell them.

đŸœ± On sentiments: The sentiment of perfect goodness and related sentiments, including that of parfum seems to arise from universal appreciation for the beautiful, delicious, and sweet-smelling fruit of the strawberry. Also see below discussion regarding the scent of strawberry leaves and flowers.

đŸœ± On garden versus woodland strawberries: The garden strawberry, Fragaria × ananassa, arises from a hybrid between two American strawberries - F. virginiana and F. chiloensis, produced by gardeners in Brittany, France, in the 1750s from the newly introduced species. It was first recorded by under the name 'pine strawberry' (F. ananassa) by Philip Miller in 1759, and its prolific fruiting quickly overtook the woodland strawberry, F. vesca, for commercial production.

Despite this, it is F. vesca which is referenced by period writers. It draws attention to one of the subgroups of floriography: that of a 'woodland idyll', where the 'untouched' English woodland is the aesthetic backdrop to the individual's psyche.

đŸœ± On strawberry leaves and their supposed scent: Source HNE devotes some time to discussing the scent of strawberry leaves, referenced repeatedly in English poetry - he notes the above citations from Spenser's 'Sonnet 64', Bacon, and Gaskell all discussing the scent of the leaves or flowers, rather than of the fruit.

The passage in Gaskell's novel discusses the Bacon, and remarks that the protagonist, told that every member of the family can smell strawberry leaves, is perplexed when she herself cannot. Ellacombe remarks that he, also, could not detect any scent from strawberry leaves, and the only strawberry flower he knew to have a scent was Fragaria chiloensis subsp. lucida, imported late to Britain and unknown to Spenser and Bacon.

Although I can find no scientific exploration on the topic, I am given to wonder if - like the scent of ants, or the taste (foul or otherwise) of cucurbits - the scent of strawberry plants is a hereditary trait. I have seen some discussion on forums regarding whether strawberries, even the fruit, have any scent at all, with no conclusions.

As I write this, I have just headed out to my own garden, where I have four varieties of F. × ananassa currently flowering, and I confess that while the ripe fruit certainly have a smell, I cannot for the life of me detect any from the plants, save a very subtle 'green' smell from the leaves upon crushing - they do not even leave a lingering scent on my fingers. I am curious to hear readers' experiences with this, particularly with F. vesca and how it may differ, given the insistence on the plant's sweet smell from so many authors, and our florigraphy writers' sentiments such as parfum.


Abécédaire de Flore

B. DelachĂ©naye, 1811 ◼︎


NOMS DES FLEURS
substituées aux syllabes formées de plusieurs lettres.

NOM DES FLEURS. MOTS ANALOGUES.
34. fraisoer. il disait, il faisait.


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34. Du fraisier.

Le fraisier, qui flatte ordinairement la vue, sous le double rapport de ses fleurs et de son fruit, figure la syllabe ai, qui a le son de l’ù ouvert, comme dans jamais, mauvais, et dans la troisiĂšme personne singuliĂšre de l’imparfait, du plus-que-parfait, et du conditionnel de tous les verbes, il aimait, il avait aimĂ©, il aurait aimĂ©, ainsi que dans celle du pluriel, ils aimaient, ils avaient aimĂ©, ils auraient aimĂ©. Dans le premier cas, le feuillage du fraisier, ornĂ© de fleurs et d’une seule fraise, absorbe deux lettres, y compris le t. Dans le second, la substitution en absorbe quatre; on figurera un bouquet de fraises pour le pluriel des verbes: le s est absorbĂ© par une seule fraise dans un mot au singulier dans les noms, et le bouquet indiquera le pluriel de ces noms.


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DESCRIPTION DES PLANTES
DE L’ABÉCÉDAIRE DE FLORE.

QUATRIÉME PLANCHE.


 34. Fraisier, Fragaria vesca, Lin. Les parties fraĂźches et ombragĂ©es de nos bois sont la patrie naturelle de cette plante, qui s’y est fait remarquer par des touffes de feuilles Ă  trois folioles dentĂ©es, plissĂ©es et d’un beau vert; par ses jolies fleurs blanches et abondantes, et surtout par ses fruits le plus ordinairement d’un beau rouge, mais toujours pleins d’un suc savoureux et parfumĂ©. TransportĂ© dans nos potagers et cultivĂ© avec soin, le Fraisier y est devenu plus beau et plus fĂ©cond. On l’y propage de graines, et souvent des filets qu’il jette au loin, et qui, prenant racines dans les endroits oĂč ils touchent la terre, font de nouvelles plantes, qui jse multiplient de mĂȘme. Le Fraisier des Alpes, dit des quatre saisons, mĂ©rite la prĂ©fĂ©rence, parceque, si son fruit est moins gros, il a plus de parfum et donne plus long-tems. Entre autres variĂ©tĂ©s, on distingue celle sans filets, — celle Ă  une feuille, — et celle Ă  fleurs doubles, etc.


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EMBLÉMES TIRÉS DU RÈGNE VÉGÉTAL.


F.


Fleur de cerisier signifie ne m'oubliez pas.
—— de fraisier parfum.


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La Flore de la Manche

LĂ©on Besnou, 1881 ◼︎

G. Fragaria Tourn. — Fraisier.


De Fragrans, odorant; allusion au parfum du fruit.


F. VESCA L. — F. COMESTIBLE. Fragum Tab. Fragula Cord. Trifolium Fragaria Brunsf. — Fragiferum Tab. Fraisier des bois. Bret. Bod sivi. Angl. Wood Straw-Berry plant. All. Erd-Beer Kraut. Ital. Fragolo. —Viv. — Avril-juin. Bois, talus des fossĂ©s. C. Chacun connaĂźt la dĂ©licatesse de la fraise. La racine du fraisier est astringente.

Je n'ai point vu le F. ELATIOR Ehrh, (magna Thuill.) indiqué à Cherbourg sans localité précise, dans le Guide du Voyageur.


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Cite this page (MLA 9th): Never Never. “Strawberry.” Glossa Hortensia, 25 Nov. 2024, neverxnever.neocities.org/glossahortensia/fragaria. Accessed [DD Mon. YYYY].