REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR AND ACTING AGRICULTURIST. 



61 



vatioru Those which are known as American or native sorts are believed to have 

 resulted from crosses between the wild species and European forms, and are noted iar 

 their hardiness, productiveness, and freedom from mildew. Several hundred seedlings 

 resulted from these efforts, some of which are still in cultivation. Two of them — one 

 named Pearl (a cross between Downing and Aston's Seedling, or Broom Girl) and Red 

 Jacket (a cross between Houghton and Warrington) — are both popular sorts, on account 

 of their size, productiveness, and freedom from mildew, and are now extensively grown 

 both in Canada and the United States. Among the early experiments some trials were 

 made with the wild sorts — the small, smooth gooseberry, Ribes oxyacanthoides, and the 

 prickly gooseberry, Ribes Gynosbati. No success attended the efforts with the former ; 

 but among the crosses obtained on the prickly gooseberry R. Gynosbati with Warring- 

 ton were several interesting sorts, one of which was quite smooth, another sparingly 

 hairy, and a third somewhat more hairy. This latter is still under cultivation at the 

 Central Experimental Farm at Ottawa. In growth and habit the bushes resemble the 

 female parent, but the fruit is considerably larger and much improved in quality, and 

 the berries when ripe are tinged with red. Efforts were also made during these early 

 years to cross the black, red and white currants with the gooseberry, but without 

 success. After five or six years the new seedlings had increased to such an extent that 

 their number was embarrassing, and no more work was undertaken on this line until 

 1890, after the establishment of the Canadian Experimental Farms, when a larger field 

 for such work was opened. On my arrival from London, Ontario, at Ottawa, in 1887, 

 all the surviving seedlings of all sorts of any promise — more than 800 in all — were 

 taken to the Central Experimental Farm, and since then, with the help of assistants, 

 many new forms have been produced. Among others, hybrids have been obtained 

 between the cultivated black currant, Ribes nigrum, and a cultivated variety of the 

 gooseberry, Ribes Grossularia ; also between the black currant and white currant, a 

 variety of Ribes rubrum. In each instance the black currant was chosen as the female. 

 Three of the hybrids between the black currant and the white currant, and twenty- 

 eight of those between the black currant and gooseberry, are still under trial. There 

 are in this instance some well marked points of difference between the female and the 



male, and the hybrids, in many 

 respects, are intermediate in 

 their character. The branches 

 of the black currant are without 

 thorns, whereas those of the 

 gooseberry are thorny; the hy- 

 brids have the branches thornless 

 as in the female. 



The leaves of the black cur- 

 rant (Fig. 1) are large, three 

 lobed, with the points of inter- 

 section between the lobes slightly 

 notched, and the margins are ser- 

 rated ; the teeth coarse, some- 

 what irregular and pointed. (See 

 figure.) The leaves are also sup- 

 plied with a large number of oil 

 cells, so that when bruised they 

 exhale a strong and characteristic 

 odour. The leaf stalks are very 

 slightly hairy towards the base. 



In the gooseberry the points of 

 intersection between the lobes of 

 the leaves are deeply notched 

 (Fig. 2), and the marginal serra- 

 tions are more irregular and 

 Fig. 1.— Leaf of Black currant. ' rounded, with short, blunt points. 



