XXIV. THE CURRANT FAMILY. 419 



FAMILY XXIV. THE CURRANT FAMILY. GROSSVLA'CEJE. 



De Candolle. 



This family includes only one genus, which comprehends the 

 Currants and the Gooseberries. They are either spiny or un- 

 armed shrubs, natives of the mountains, hills, woods and thick- 

 ets of the temperate regions of America, Europe and Asia, but 

 unknown within the tropics, or in any part of Africa. They 

 are found particularly about mountains. Most of the species 

 produce agreeable, refreshing, sub-acid fruits. The Black Cur- 

 rant, Ribcs nigrum, a native of Siberia and northern Europe, is 

 cultivated for the pleasant tonic and stimulant properties pos- 

 sessed by a jelly made of its ripe fruit. The Red Currant, 

 Ribcs rubrum, found wild in the mountainous woods of Britain 

 and other northern countries of Europe, and in the northern part 

 of America, and the White, which is a variety produced from 

 this by cultivation, are, in most places, justly valued for their 

 uses in cookery, as a dessert, and as affording a cooling and 

 wholesome drink. The common Gooseberry, R. uva crispa or 

 grossularia, a native of the same regions, but hardly known in 

 gardens on the continent of Europe, while the size and richness 

 of its fruit are the pride of English, especially Lancashire horti- 

 culture, is generally but rather unsuccessfully cultivated here 

 for its use in tarts and pies, and sometimes as a dessert. The 

 Missouri Currant, R. aureum, has been introduced on account 

 of the luxuriance of its growth and the beauty and fragrance 

 of the flowers ; and another from California, R. speciosum, 

 which has been erected into the genus Robsonia, deserves to 

 be introduced. 



Fifty-three distinct species are described by De Candolle: — 

 Prodromns, III, 477 — 483 ; sixty-six in Don's Gardening, III, 

 177—192 ; twenty-eight in the Flora of North America, I, 544 

 — 553, as natives of this country, several of which latter are 

 not • led by the writers ab >ve-named 



Characters of the Family and of the Genus. — Calyx adher- 

 ing to the ovary, bell-shaped or tubular, colored, marcescent, 



