THE BOTANY OF THE BUSH FRUITS. 253 



is nearly cylindrical, with segments upright, scarcely spreading, longer 

 than the tube, thin and membranaceous or petal-like. The'petals are 

 broadly ovate or spatulate, reaching half way to the anthers. The 

 thorns are rather slender and very finely pointed, one-fourth to three- 

 eighths of an inch long. The bearing twigs carry more or less fine 

 bristles and the berry is smooth. It is distributed from Newfound- 

 land to the middle Atlantic states and far westward. 



This is the species to which our common American varieties like 

 Downing and Houghton belong. It has proved itself so mnch bet- 

 ter adapted to our climate that the commercial gooseberry industry 

 of the present day is almost wholly dependent upon this species- 

 While it cannot rank with the European gooseberry in size of fruit, it» 

 quality is equally good, if not superior, and its power to resist disease 

 and yield uniformly heavy crops of fruit has given it an easy lead. 



Bibes grossularia Linn. — European Gooseberry. — This species 

 is so like the preceding in its botanical characters that it is difficult to- 

 distinguish them, though there are minor differences. The calyx tube 

 is broad, bell-shaped, thickish and leaf-like, strongly pubescent with 

 broad ovate segments, at length reflexed. The petals are obovate, reach- 

 ing to the base of the anthers. The stamens do not project beyond the 

 calyx segments. The spines are mostly in threes, heavy and thick at 

 the base, the central one three-eighths to one half-inch long. The fruit- 

 ing twigs are free from bristles, and the fruit is commonly armed with 

 prickles or glandular hairs. This species is very generally distributed: 

 over the eastern hemisphere. It is the parent of the gooseberries 

 which have reached such magnificent development in England, where 

 they commonly attain the size of ordinary plums. Many varieties 

 have been introduced into the United States but none of them have 

 proved adapted to our conditions. Except in some unusually favored 

 location they always suffer from mildew. The recent advances in the 

 art of spraying have enabled us to overcome this disease to a great ex- 

 tent, however, so that it is now possible to grow varieties of this species 

 successfully in many locations if the requisite attention is given to- 

 their care in this regard. As in the case of the red raspberry, though 

 the botanical differences between the American and the European spe- 

 cies are but slight, the horticultural differences are very evident. 

 From specimens at hand the above characters seem to fairly discrimi- 

 nate the wild forms from a botanical standpoint, but many of fcese 



