species. It is the common smooth-fruited Gooseberry of 
New England and the whole region northward.” 
R. oxyacanthoides, or “‘ Currant Gooseberry,” was intro- 
duced into England in 1705 by a Mr. Reynardson, and 
is mentioned by Plukenet in his “ Amaltheum Botanicum.” 
The fruiting specimens figured were kindly sent in August, 
1885, by G. Fox, Esq., of Chad Hill, Sandown, Isle 
of Wight, and the flowering in April of the present 
year. It only remains to add that though smaller than 
the common gooseberry, the fruit is as good as the ordinary 
varieties of that species, and the skin is much thinner, 
and that it has none of the unpleasant musky flavour of 
some allied North American species. I have received from 
the South of France a small globose purple smooth-skinned 
ripe gooseberry in the month of May, which resembles 
those of oxyacanthoides so much that I suspect it may be 
cultivated there for the sake of its fruit. Loudon states 
that the colour of the latter varies from red to green and 
purplish blue. It is described as an unfailing cropper, 
flourishing when the ordinary gooseberry flags for want 
of moisture; and its only drawback is the thorny nature . 
of the bush, which renders the berries difficult to pick. 
Descr. An erect shrub, two to four feet high; branches 
pale, smooth, or with a few scattered bristles ; spines one 
to three. Leaves one and a half to two inches broad, 
usually semicircular in outline, with a truncate base, but 
the latter is sometimes cuneate, three- to five-lobed, lobes 
coarsely crenate, pale green and glabrous above, paler and 
Sometimes pubescent beneath; petiole very slender, as 
long as the blade. Racemes small, short, two- to three- 
flowered ; bracts minute ; flowers half an inch in diameter. 
Calyw-tube campanulate, green, lobes about as long as the 
tube, oblong, tip rounded, reddish-brown. Petals minute, 
yellow. Stamens shorter than the calyx-lobes. Ovary 
ellipsoid, glabrous; style two-cleft to below the middle, 
hairy. Berry globose, three-quarters of an inch in 
diameter, green red or purple; skin very tender, quite 
glabrous ; pulp sweet. Seeds many.—J. D, H. 
Fig. 1, Flowering branch ; 2 iti son 
» ; 2, petal; 3, stamens; 4, ovary; 5, fruiting specimen; 
2 ay Wh fleshy testa; 7, nucleus and raphe from eed 8, longitudinal section 
and embryo ;—all but figs. 1 and 5 enlarged. 
