312 THE SMALL FRUITS OF NEW YORK 



THE EUROPEAN GOOSEBERRY 



The European gooseberry might almost be said to be a British fruit, 

 because more commonly cultivated, used, and more highly esteemed in 

 Great Britain than in any other part of the world. Yet the Scandinavians, 

 Danes, Dutch, and Germans grow many varieties and pay much attention 

 to gooseberry cvdture. It can never be known in which of the northern 

 European countries the gooseberry first became common as a garden plant. 

 Very possibly, almost without doubt, wild plants were fostered if not actu- 

 ally cultivated in gardens in all of these northern countries in the early stages 

 of agriculture and their domestication took place in all and at presumably 

 about the same dates since agriculture progressed apace in all. For the 

 purposes of this text, therefore, it suffices as well to trace briefly its history 

 in England as to attempt a more complete historical account. 



The reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1 533-1603, was a golden age in English 

 gardening as well as in science, art, and literature. Explorers from the 

 new world brought many new and useful plants ; persecuted Protestants from 

 the continent seeking refuge in England introduced new methods of culture 

 and a love of gardens; and books about plants, herbals, botanies. Bacon's 

 famous essay, and several noteworthy treatises on agriculture, all mark 

 this as a period of great activity in the arts of plant growing. The goose- 

 berry first appeared in Elizabethan gardens, at least as a common plant, 

 according to the old garden books. 



Turner, 1548, seems to be the first of the English garden writers to 

 mention the gooseberry, thereby starting a misunderstanding that has 

 caused much discussion down to our own day. He says: " It groweth only 

 that I have sene in England, in gardines, but I have sene it in Germany 

 abrode in the fields among other bushes." Is the gooseberry indigenous to 

 England or was it brought to English gardens from the continent? Probably 

 Turner was not a scientific reporter for the weight of authority is distinctly 

 on the side of its being a native of England as well as of the continent. 



Thomas Tusser, 1573, the poet, farmer, and vagabond, whom every 

 pomological historian must quote, gives a list of fruits to be trans- 

 planted in January in which he includes " Goose beries," and in his Five 

 Hundred Pointes of Good Hushandrie under September's husbandrie, mentions 

 the gooseberry in one of his verses. 



" The Barbery, Respis, and Gooseberry too 

 Looke now to be planted as other things doo. 

 The Gooseberry, Respis, and Roses, al three 

 With strawberries under them trimly agree." 



