fragaria

[Lat. frag a (gen it. fragorum )= straw gari aagumata strawberry plant.) Bot.: A genus of Rosaceæ, family Potent ill ide. The achenes are on a large, fleshy deciduous receptacle; the calyx is double, with as many external bracteoles at its summit as it has divisions, and alternating with them. Fragaria vesca is the Wild Strawberry. Another, F. elatior , is a garden escape. The species is the probable origin of the Haut-bois Strawberry. [STRAWBERRY.] *frâght, *frâught ( gh silent), s. [FREIGHT.] frăg-Ile, a . [Fr., from Lat. fragilis , from frag- , the root of frango to break; Sp. & Port. fragil ; Ital. fragile . 1. Brittle, easily broken or destroyed; weak, frail, delicate. "Much ostentation vain of fleshly arm, And fragile arms." Milton: P. R. , iii. 308. 2. Weak, slight, feeble, slender. "When subtile wits have spun their thread too fine, 'Tis weak and fragile , like Arachne's line." Denham: Progre of Learning, 188. Crabb thus discriminates between fragile , frail , and brittle : " Fragile and frail both come from the Lat. fragilis , signifying breakable; but the former is used in the proper sense only, and the latter more generally in the improper sense: man, corporeally considered, is a fragile creature, his frame is composed of fragile materials; mentally considered, he is a frail creature, for he is liable to every sort of frailty . Brittle denotes likewise a capacity to break, that is, properly breakable; but it con. veys a stronger idea of this quality than fragile : the fragile applies to whatever will break from the effects of time; brittle to that which will not bear a temporary violence: in this sense all the works of men are fragile , and in fact all sublunary things; but gla , stone, and ice are peculiarly denominated brittle ." ( Crabb : Eng . Synon .) frăg-Ile-ly, adv. [English fragile; -ly.] In a fragile manner.