Strawberry
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Strawberry. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a trailing herb of the rose family. It is stemless. White flowers grow on scapes a few inches high, and are succeeded a few weeks later by red fruit. Properly speaking, the strawberry is not a berry. In a berry, as, for instance, a currant or gooseberry, the seeds are surrounded by pulp inclosed in a skin. The seeds of the strawberry, on the contrary, are naked and dry on the outside of a fleshy receptacle. The acid of the strawberry is the same chemically as the acid of an apple. Strawberry plants may be raised from the seed, but the strawberry is propagated usually by means of jointed runners. A new plant is formed at each joint and takes root for itself. There are about six species of wild strawberries. The wood strawberry has small, perfect fruit with a narrow neck. The seeds project slightly. This strawberry, known to the botanist as Fragaria vesca, is widely distributed through North America and Europe. The wild wood strawberry has the finest flavor of all strawberries. It is of this species that Dr. Boteler, as quoted by Izaak Walton, said, "Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubt-less God never did." The Virginian strawberry is the strawberry of old fields throughout eastern North America. It is larger than the wood berry. The seeds are sunk in small pits. Other species are found in the West. The garden berries of America and Europe are derived from a wild species native to the Pacific coast of America from Alaska to Chile. This Chilian species was introduced into Europe about 200 years ago. The American varieties came by way of England. In 1835 the Hovey Seedling, and a few years later the Early Scarlet, the first famous berries of America, were propagated. The successful raising of berries in America began with these varieties. A later favorite was the Wilson. Strawberry vines, so-called from the runners, adapt themselves to a great variety of soil. They require moisture and fairly cool weather. The strawberry may be raised successfully in every state and province in North America. The flowers of some varieties have both stamens and pistils. Other excellent varieties have pistillate flowers only. Such varieties develop fruit only when planted with varieties that have stamens. Unless a large number of the little seeds be fertilized by pollen the berry produced is a mere "nubbin." A frost has the same effect. Gardeners find that by cutting off the runners as fast as they appear the yield of berries may be increased. Southern gardeners mulch their strawberries with pine needles. In the grain-raising states straw is used for the purpose. Mulch serves to keep the ground moist and to keep the berries clean. A covering of several inches of straw in the winter prevents killing by frost. The raising of strawberries has grown into immense proportions. A recent authority states that the annual crop for the United States is not far from 257,000,000 quarts. This estimate should be increased from year to year. In the United States the strawberry season begins in February. The Florida and Texas strawberries are on the market in this month. A month later strawberries are ripe throughout a strip 150 miles farther north. The basis of supply sweeps north over Vermont and Minnesota late in June. Manitoba berries ripen as late as July. See Rose ; Raspberry , etc.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a well-known fruit and plant of the genus Fragaria, natural. order Rosaceæ. It is remarkable for the manner in which the receptacle, commonly called the fruit, increases and becomes succulent; but the true fruit is the small seeds or achenes on the surface of the receptacle. The species are perennial plants throwing out runners which take root and produce new plants; they are natives of temperate and cold climates in Europe, America, and Asia. The following species afford the varieties of cultivated strawberries: (1) Wood strawberry (F. vesca), found wild in the woods and on hillsides throughout Europe, and now cultivated in gardens, as the red, the white, the American, and Danish Alpine strawberries. (2) The Alpine strawberry (F. collina), a native of Switzerland and Germany. The varieties of strawberries called green are the produce of this species. (3) Hautbois strawberry (F. elatior), a native of North America. (4) Virginian strawberry (F. virginiana or caroliniana), a native of Virginia. To this species belongs a great list of sorts cultivated in gardens, and known by the name of scarlet and black strawberries. (5) Largeflowered strawberry (F. grandiflora) is supposed to be a native of Surinam, and to have furnished our gardens with the sorts called pine strawberries. (6) Chile strawberry (F. chilensis), a native of Chile and Peru, and the parent of a number of mostly inferior strawberries. The strawberry is propagated by seeds, by division of the plant, and by runners. Most of the strawberry plants in the United States are grown by runners.