246 THE SMALL FRUITS OF NEW YORK 



that they could not buy sorts true to name. Currants were at this time, 

 probably for some years before, propagated from cuttings, although suckers 

 and layers are still recommended. 



Phillips in his Pomariuni Britannicum, 1820, may be quoted to show 

 the purposes for which currants were chiefly grown a hundred years ago 

 as compared with the present. They were less esteemed then to eat out of 

 hand than for medicinal and beverage purposes. Thus Phillips* says: 



"At the dessert, they are greatly esteemed, being found cooling and 

 grateful to the stomach; and they are as much admired for their trans- 

 parent beauty, as for their medicinal qualities, being moderately refrigerant, 

 antiseptic, attenuant, and aperient. They may be used with advantage 

 to allay thirst in most febrile complaints, to lessen an increased secretion 

 of bile, and to correct a putrid and scorbutic state of the fluids, especially 

 in sanguine temperaments: but in constitutions of a contrary kind, they are 

 apt to occasion flatulency and indigestion. Brookes says, they strengthen 

 the stomach, excite appetite, and are good against vomiting." And again: ^ 



" The wine made from the white ciurants, if rich of fruit, so as to require 

 little sugar, is, when kept to a proper age, of a similar flavour to the Grave 

 and Rhenish wines; and I have known it preferred as a summer table wine. 

 Even in London this agreeable beverage may be made at less expence than 

 moderate cider can be bought for. Diluted in water, this wine is an excellent 

 drink in the hot season, particularly to those of feverish habits. It makes 

 an excellent shrub; and the juice is a pleasant acid in punch, which, about 

 thirty years back, was a favourite beverage in the coffee-houses in Paris." 



Phillips names the red and white currant as the kinds cultivated in 

 1820, but says "the salmon color, or champaigne, is cultivated for variety." 

 Other varieties were to be found, however, as we shall see in the next 

 paragraphs. 



In the Catalogue of Fruits cultivated in the Garden of the Horticultural 

 Society of London, 1826, 35 species and varieties of currants are named, but 

 judging from the names not more than 20 of these are inhabitants of fruit 

 gardens, and some of these are of doubtftil standing, as the catalog makes 

 the following statement, true now as then:^ 



" There is perhaps no class of fruits in which so much ignorance exists 

 of the merits and differences of the varieties, as the Red and White Cur- 

 rants of the Gardens. It is impossible to obtain the different kinds with 

 certainty from the Nurseries, although there is no doubt that their respec- 



> Phillips, Henry Pom. Brit. 138. 1820. 



^Ibid. 139. 



^Lond. Hon. Soc. Cat. 185. 1826. 



