THE SMALL FRUITS OF NEW YORK 253 



more attention to the medicinal qualities of the products about which they 

 wrote than to their food value, and the black currant, having a most marked 

 taste and odor, was supposed to possess many virtues as a medicine and as 

 such was in common use in nearly all northern countries of Europe. In 

 Great Britain it was called the " squinancy berry " because of its common 

 use in quinsy. Many of the early writers mention it only as a medicine. 

 One of the old herbalists describes the fruit as " of a stinking and somewhat 

 loathing savour," a characteristic still so marked that few would attempt 

 to eat the fruit as a dessert. It is now and has ever been used as medicine, 

 to make wine and other liquors, for jellies, jams, and for flavoring. 



The geographical range of the black currant is about the same as that 

 of the wild and cultivated red currants but if anything a little more northern. 

 Only northern peoples seem to care for the fruit and its products. The 

 black currant is little liked in France or southern Germany, but to the north 

 of these regions and in northern Russia it is a rather common fruit. The 

 farther north, the less disagreeable the odor and taste, and the larger the 

 currants. We may assume, therefore, that its earliest culture was in some 

 of the northern countries of Europe and that it was brought into gardens 

 at about the same time and by the same people who first undertook the 

 culture of the red currant. The Scotch and English seem fond of the 

 fruit and nearly all of the varieties known to Americans came from Great 

 Britain. 



The black currant is little grown in America. Few Americans bom in 

 the country have tasted the fruit, or ever having done so care for a second 

 taste. The product is almost never seen in fruit markets, and the growing 

 of black currants is nowhere in the United States a commercial industry, 

 although an occasional plantation may be seen in Canada. Here and there, 

 plants are found in the gardens of Europeans settled in America or in those 

 of their immediate descendants. The law in many states prohibits the 

 culture of black currants because the plant is a host for the fungus which 

 causes the pine blister-rust, a dangerous disease on certain pines. The 

 black currant, for these reasons, though probably introduced in the United 

 States as early as the red, has never become popular. 



