Family 13. GROSSULARIACEAE 
By FREDERICK VERNON COVILLE AND NATHANIEL LORD BRITTON 
Shrubs, with erect, ascending, recurved, trailing, or even prostrate stems, 
often bristly, sometimes with nodal spines. Leaves alternate, simple, petioled, 
on the lateral branches usually fascicled, deciduous or persistent, the blades 
variously lobed or toothed, rarely entire, the base of the petiole often 
dilated; stipules none, or adnate to the petiole. Inflorescence terminal on 
short axillary branches, racemose, the raceme sometimes reduced to a single 
flower; flowers bracteate, small, regular, perfect, or sometimes imperfect ; 
hypanthium elongate, short, or obsolete; sepals usually 5, rarely 4, imbricate 
or nearly valvate; petals small, as many as the sepals, borne alternately with 
them at the top of the hypanthium; stamens as many as the sepals and op- 
posite them, the filaments short or elongate, the anthers didymous; ovary 
inferior, 1-celled; style 2-lobed, 2-cleft, or 2-divided, rarely 3-cleft; stigmas 
small, simple; ovules several or numerous, on two, or rarely three, parietal 
placentae. Fruit a 1-celled pulpy berry, several- to many-seeded ; seeds hori- 
zontal, angular, the minute terete embryo in fleshy endosperm. 
Plants without nodal spines and without bristles, or, if with them, the flowers 
without an apparent hypanthium ; pedicels jointed beneath the ovary, bearing 
a pair of bractlets just below the joint, or the bractlets obsolete; fruit dis- 
articulating from the pedicel. 1. RIBES. 
Plants with nodal spines, bristly or without bristles; flowers with an evident 
hypanthium ; pedicels not jointed, the bractlets if present minute, situated at 
the very base of the pedicel, and covered by the bract; fruit not disarticulat- 
ing from the pedicel. 2. GROSSULARIA. 
1. RIBES L. Sp. Pl. 201. 1753. 
Ribesium Medic. Phil. Bot. 1: 120. 1789. 
Chrysobotrya Spach, Ann. Sci. Nat. II. 4: 18. 1835. 
Calobotrya Spach, Ann. Sci. Nat. II. 4: 21. 1835. 
Coreosma Spach, Ann. Sci. Nat. II. 4: 22. 1835. 
Cerophyllum Spach, Hist. Vég. 6: 152. 1838. 
Botryocarpium Spach, Hist. Vég. 6: 158. 1838. 
Shrubs, usually unarmed, a few species bristly. Leaves palmately veined, usually 
jobed, sometimes merely dentate, usually deciduous, rarely persistent. Racemes several- 
to many-flowered ; pedicels jointed beneath the ovary, a pair of bractlets often present just 
below the joint. Ovary glandular or eglandular, not spiny. Hypanthium tubular to cupuli- 
form, short or elongate, sometimes obsolete. Fruit disarticulating from the pedicel. 
Type species, Ribes rubrum 1. 
A. Plants with spines or prickles. (LACUSTRIA.) . 
Leaves smooth or nearly so; racemes commonly with 10-15 flowers, 
sometimes fewer; berries dark-purple or almost black. 1. R. lacustre. 
Leaves pubescent and glandular-hairy on both surfaces; racemes com- 
monly with 3-7 flowers, rarely more ; berries bright-red. 2. R. montigenum. 
B. Plants without spines or prickles. 
a. Ovary with sessile glands. ; 
1. Leaves holly-like, evergreen. (VIBURNIFOLIA.) ° 3. R. viburnifolium. 
2. Leaves maple-like, deciduous. : . 
* Hypanthium conspicuous, urn-shaped, the sepals in anthesis 
ascending, and then recurved at about the middle. (Nicra.) 4. R. nigrum. 
** Hypanthium short and inconspicuous, satcer-shaped, the sepals 
spreading from the base. (HUDSONIANA.) 
Bracts of the racemes large, broadest above the middle, the 
lowest often expanded into a leaf-like blade; sepals green ; 
berry at maturity whitened with a dense bloom. 5. &. bracteosum. 
VoLUME 22, Part 3, 1908] 193 
