THE SMALL FRUITS OF NEW YORK 255 



While many botanists unite the two genera tinder one as Ribes, others 

 have preferred to keep them separate and have restored the genus Gros- 

 sularia of PhiUpp Miller for the gooseberries. The two are easily 

 distinguished : 



A. Flowers in racemes or in clusters; racemes several- to many-flowered; pedicels jointed 



below the ovary. Fruit disarticulating from the pedicel Ribes (Page 255). 



AA. Flowers in few-flowered racemes; pedicels not jointed. Fruit not disarticulating from 

 the pedicel. Branches usually with spines at the nodes. . . .Grossularia (Page 271). 



RIBES. Linnaeus Sp. PL 201. 1753. 



Ribesititn. Medic. Phil. Bot. 120. 1789. 



Currants. — Usually unarmed shrubs, but occasionally (sect. Grossularioides and 

 Berisia) with stipular spines and bristles. Leaves palmately veined and more or less 

 deeply lobed and serrate. Flowers in racemes, rarely clustered, hermaphrodite or uni- 

 sexual and then dioecious; pedicels jointed below the ovary, often with 2 minute bractlets. 

 Ovary glandiJar or smooth, never spiny; receptacle from shallowly saucer-shaped or rotate 

 to tubular; the top disc-like, often thickened or with knobs or rings. Fruit disarticulating 

 from the pedicel, red, white, yellow or black, often with a bloom, glabrous, glandular, or 

 glandular-hairy. 



Key to the Subgenera 



A. Flowers hermaphrodite (with perfect stamens and perfect ovary) 

 B. Branches imarmed 



C. Ovary smooth, receptacle rotate or shallowly cup-shaped, rarely campanulate, 

 never with stalked glands 

 D. Plants glandless or glands crystalline, only on young growth; fruits usually 



red (whitish) or dark purple, more or less sweet or acidulous 



Red Currants: L Ribesia (Page 256) 



DD. Plants with sessile yellow glands, chiefly on the underside of the leaves, and of 



a peculiar, mostly disagreeable smell; fruits black or brownish, of a peculiar 



or disagreeable flavour Black Currants: II. Eticoreosma (Page 266) 



CC. Ovary smooth or pubescent, or with stalked glands; receptacles from rotate, 

 campanulate or vuceolate to cylindrical 

 D. Receptacle tubular, like the sepals bright yellow. Ovary glabrous. Berries 



glabrous yellow or black. Plants with crystalline glands only 



Golden Currants: III. Sympliocalyx (Page 269) 

 DD. Receptacles variously shaped and colored 



E. Receptacles variously shaped but not rotate, more or less glandular. Ovaries 

 smooth, pubescent or with stalked glands. Berries red or black, often 



with a bloom, glabrous or pubescent or glandular 



Ornamental Currants: IV. Calobotrya^ 

 EE. Receptacle rotate. Plants only with crystalline not viscid glands. Ovaries 



and berries with gland-bearing bristles 



Dwarf Currants: V. Heritiera 



> The plants of the subgenera IV-VIII have no pomological interest at present and are therefore not 

 considered here. Those interested in them will find a fuller account in Technical Bulletin No. 109 of this 

 Station. 



