314 THE GARDENER. [July 



coarser subjects. Flowers in shrubberies are not in their most becom- 

 ing positions ; and though we have them there, besides many other 

 objectionable features to contend with, the thing we should like to 

 see would be an entire remodelling and rearranging of the place 

 which shrubs occupy in the garden. The subject is worth thinking 

 over. • R. P. B. 



CULTIVATION OF THE GOOSEBERRY IN THE NORTH 

 OF ENGLAND. 



The Gooseberry is generally supposed to be indigenous to the island 

 of Great Britain ; but whether this be so or not, there is certainly no 

 country in which it arrives at a greater degree of perfection than in 

 the British Islands. It is always found to flourish best in temperate 

 climates, and where the climate inclines to cold rather than warm. It 

 is not found, for instance, in Africa, in the South Sea Islands, or be- 

 tween the tropics of either hemisphere, but is found in the temperate 

 parts of Europe, America, and Asia, In the southern and central 

 parts of Africa the plant is perfectly unknown, except in some situa- 

 tions where, among the high mountains, the temperature is low 

 enough to suit its requirements. Persons who have resided a long time 

 in India, and who during that time had never seen a Gooseberry or 

 Currant, speak with delight of the European character which these 

 plants give to the scenery of the mountains in the north of that 

 country. 



It is not exactly known when the Gooseberry became an object of 

 cultivation in this country, but it had become a garden fruit in the 

 reign of Henry VIII. ; for the old writer Tusser, who lived in that 

 reign, says, in his ' Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie,' — 



"The Barberry Respes, and Gooseberry too, 

 Look now to be planted as other things do." 



Soon after this period descriptions were given of about a dozen 

 varieties — and among the rest, one called the Blue, a colour not now 

 found among the hundreds of varieties in cultivation. The fruit was 

 apparently very small when the plant was first brought under cultiva- 

 tion, resembling the small tasteless fruit which is still found in the 

 south of Europe ; and in point of size, at least, it does not appear to 

 have improved much for more than a century after Tusser's time, 

 as may be inferred from the surprise expressed by Pepys at seeing 

 Gooseberries as big as nutmegs. At every subsequent period (says an 

 interesting and useful little tract, called ' The History and Cultivation 

 of the Gooseberry,' printed at Sheflield, and from which much of the 

 information in this article is taken) the Gooseberry has claimed a share 

 of attention from horticulturists. It has found a place alike in the 

 garden of the nobleman and of the cottager, and has amply rewarded 



