1905] Fernald, Lithological Varieties of Ribes 153 
THE Essex Institute of Salem, Massachusetts, has issued a notice of 
* meetings for the exhibition and study of Fungi” to be held at the 
Institute on July 17, August 29, September 5, 11, 18, and 25. | 
These dates fall on Mondays, except September 5, which is Tuesday. 
“All who are interested in Edible and Poisonous Mushrooms are 
invited to attend, and to send for exhibition " any specimens that are 
complete and in a good state of preservation. 
The committee in charge consists of Richards B. Macintosh, of 
Peabody, and Willis H. Ropes of «Salem. Authorities on mush- 
rooms are expected to speak at these meetings. 
It is interesting to see others following the example set for a num- 
ber of years by the Boston Mycological Club, whose exhibitions of 
named fungi are again this year a regular feature on Saturdays at 
Horticultural Hall from July to November. 
SOME LITHOLOGICAL VARIATIONS OF RIBES. 
M. L. FERNALD. 
THE common gooseberry of eastern New England and the Mari- 
time Provinces, /X'2bes oxyacanthoides, L., is a more or less prickly 
shrub, with the mature fan-shaped leaves of the fertile branches 
mostly cuneate or truncate at base, dark green and glabrate above, 
light green and only slightly villous on the veins beneath. The 
species is common in the coastal district either in swamps or in drv 
or rocky soil, and it extends inland as a somewhat local shrub 
throughout New England, west beyond the Great Lakes, and north 
to Hudson Bay. Its greatest development is apparently in the 
coastal area from southern New England to Newfoundland and 
eastern New Brunswick. In the southern half of Gaspé Peninsula 
in eastern Quebec the common New England form of the plant is 
apparently very rare; extended explorations along the Baie des 
Chaleurs, eastward to Gaspé Basin, and inland from fifteen to thirty 
miles along the larger rivers, showing the shrub to be probably 
absent from the great calcareous region.(Lower Carboniferous and 
Silurian) which extends over most of the county of Bonaventure and 
