Strawberries.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1030, 27 November 1891, Page 5

Strawberries.

All herbalists agree in pronouncing strawberries as beneficial beyond every other English fruit ; their smell is refreshing to the spirits, they abate fever, and are diuteuc, gently laxative. The chemical constituents of the strawberry are a peculiar volatile aroma, sugar, mucilage, pectine, citric aud malic acids iu equal p >rts, woody fibre and water. The fruit is mucilaginous, somewhat tart, and saccharine. It. is especially suitable in inflammatoiy and putrid fevers, and for catarrhal sore throats. So wholesome are strawbeiries that if laid in a heap and left by themselves to decompose, they will decay without undergoing any acetous fermentation ; nor cm their kindly temperature be soured even by composure to the acids of the stomach. They are constituted entirely of soluble matter,, and leave no residuum to hinder digestion. It is probably for this reason, and because the fruit contains noactual nutriment a 3 food, that the custom arose of combining rich clotted cream with it at table ; while at the same time the sharp juices are thus agreeably modified. In Germany stewed strawberries and strawberry jam are taken at dinner with roasted meats or with chicken. If fermented by art the fruit yields an ardent spirit, and a pleasant British wine can be brewed therefrom. French herbalists direct that French strawberries recently crushed shall be applied on the face at night for heat spots and freckles by the she. From the juice, with lemons, sugar, and water, they make a most agreeable drink called Bavaroise a la Grecquel'—Manchester City News.