Tab. 7611. 



BJBES villosum, C, Gay. 



Native of Chili. 



Nat. OrJ. Saxifrages. — Tribe Ribesie.e. 

 Genus Ribes, Linn. ; (Benth. & Hook.f. Gen. Plant, vol. i. p. 654.) 



Ribes (Ribesia) villosum, ; frutex erectus, ubique tomentosus, ramnlis robustia 

 teretibus, cortice atro-fusco, foliia orbiculari-ovatis sub-integris v. breviter 

 3-lobis basi rotundatis cordatiave supra convexia 3-5-nerviis, lobis brevibua 

 latis crenulato-dentatis, petiolo |— § poll, longo, racemis spiciformibua 

 florentibus foliis brevioribus breviter pedunculatis cylindraceis densifloria 

 nutantibus, fructiferis elongatis folia superantibus, bracteis oblongis 

 calyce brevioribus, calycis aurei tubo campanulato, lobis brevibus late 

 ovatis recurvis, petalis anguste ovatis lanceolatisve calycis lobia brevioribus 

 erectis, antberis sub-sessilibua, baccis villosis atro-purpureis. 



R. villosum, C. Gay, Fl. Ghil. vol. iii. p. 33. Waif. Ann. vol, i. p. 975. 



R. Bridgesii & R. Lavallei, Hort. 



The genus Ribes, which is nowhere found to the south- 

 ward of lat. 28° N. in the Old World, in the New extends 

 from the N. Polar regions to Tierra del Euego. Scarcely 

 a dozen species are found in Europe and Asia ; in Europe 

 itself eight ; in the Oriental region seven (all but one 

 also Western European) ; in the Himalaya, where the 

 genus reaches its Southern limits in the Old World (in 

 Sikkim), eight (three of them European, and one Oriental) ; 

 in China, according to Hemsley's list, eight (three of 

 them European, and one Oriental) ; in Japan three, one of 

 them European, another American. In the New World, 

 on the other hand, twenty-three species are enumerated in 

 the United States, and thirty-two in the Andes of S. 

 America. Twenty-eight species are cultivated in the 

 Arboretum of the Royal Gardens, Kew. 



B. villosum is a native of the Chilian Cordillera, in the 

 ' rapanas of Quillota and Santiago, at 8000 ft. elevation, 

 where the fruit is, according to C. Gay, its author, much 

 liked. It has been in cultivation in the Kew Arboretum 

 for probably half a century, for I find a flowering specimen 

 in the Herbarium, marked as having been collected there in 

 1858. Of its origin there is no record. It flowers annually 

 August 1st, 1898, 



