Wild Black 

 Currant 



Smooth or Northern 

 or Hawthorn Gooseberry 



Skunk or Fetid 

 Currant 



Dog Currant or 

 Prickly Gooseberry 



Swamp Red 

 Currant 



Swamp Black 

 Currant 



Eastern Wild 

 Gooseberry 



DISTRIBUTION OF VARIOUS SPECIES OF CURRANTS AND GOOSEBERRIES IN NEW ENGLAND. ADJOINING STATES AND CANADA 



The Alternate Hosts of the White Pine 



BUster Rust 



By Lawrence R. Grose, M.F. 



The white pine blister rust which threatens pines in Eastern States valued at $186,000,000 and in Western States at $240,000,000 

 is caused by a fungus. Wild and cultivated red currant and gooseberry bushes are essential to the spread of the disease. The 

 easiest symptoms of the disease to detect are perhaps the irregular swellings in the bark which may appear at any time from a few 

 months to six years after infection. In the spring the fruiting bodies of the parasite thrust themselves from within through the swollen 

 bark and form whitish blisters as large as a child's finger-nail. After a few days the blisters break and disclose bright yellow dusty 

 spores. These are blown about by the wind, but in order to perpetuate themselves must alight on the leaves of currants^or goose- 

 berries. A healthy pine cannot itself be infected directly by spores from another tree. 



An examination of near-by currant and gooseberry bushes is therefore essential in ascertaining the extent of the disease. From 

 June I till the time the leaves fall, the bushes should be searched for the mealy yellow masses which, hardly larger than a pinhead, 

 may yet be so abundant as to cover a large part of the lower surface of the leaf. Later in the fall there are short hairy outgrowths. 

 These also are on the lower surface of the leaf. If the symptoms are found, notify the State or the United States Department of 

 Agriculture and take the advice which will be given. The disease has already appeared in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, 

 Connecticut, Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Minnesota and parts of Canada. This article, 

 describing red currants and gooseberries, will be useful in detecting the disease. r^,^^ Editor 



X xMEW ENGLAND, adjoin- 

 ing states and part of Canada, 

 which are now feehng the 

 attack of the white pine bhs- 

 ter rust, there are several 

 kinds of wild gooseberry and 

 currant which the rust can 

 adopt as alternate hosts in its 

 curious dual life-history. 

 Perhaps the commonest of these is the dogberry, 



or prickly gooseberry (Ribes cynosbati. L.) . This is a 



low, straggling shrub, 



two or three feet high, 



tisually found growing 



in rocky woods, but 



thriving also in a variety 



of other places. Its 



leaves are simple and 



alternate, ordinarily oc- 

 curring, except on the 



youngest shoots, in 



groups or bundles of 



three or four, arising 



from a common point on 



the stem. They are 



lobed and toothed, and 



somewhat suggest the 



maple type of leaf in 



outline, though more 



rounded, more blunt- 

 toothed, and less deeply 



, ,^ , ,, , r 1 ' WILD BLACK CURRANT 



cleft. At the base of the wm-iiaif u/e s,ze) 



leaf-clusters the stem is Showingthefruitingsprayandflower. This 



plant is common in wet woods and low 



armed, in most cases, f^d^jfew^Yofk *'"'°"8'"'"* ^^"^ England 



with spines, and the stem bears scattered bristles. The 

 bell-shaped, greenish or dull purple flower is like- 

 wise armed with prickles, which remain about the fruit. 

 A frequent neighbor of the dogberry is the smooth, 

 or hawthorn, or northern, gooseberry [Ribes hirtcllum, 



SKUNK CURRANT 

 {One-half life size) 



The fruiting spray and ilower. This is frequent on cool, 

 moist, rocky hill-slopes and mountainsides, chiefly in 

 New York and western and northern New England. 



Michx. = i?. oxyacanthoidcs, L.). It is not quite so 

 widely distributed as the dogberry, but it is not hard to 

 find, if one looks in wet woods and on low grounds, where 

 it prefers to h've. In habit it is a small spreading shrub 



469 



