THE SMALL FRUITS OF NEW YORK 269 



lanceolate, pointed, 6-10 mm long, overtopping the pedicels, more or less recurved, rarely 

 with glandular dots. Flowers greenish white or yellow, glabrous or slightly pubescent; 

 receptacle tubular-campanulate, longer than wide; segments ligulate-oblong, obtuse, 

 generally shorter than the receptacle and twice as long as wide, spreading or recurved 

 at the top ; petals obovate, about | as long as the sepals, erect, white. Stamens inserted at 

 the same level; anthers roundish, white, almost as long as the petals. Ovary small, pyri- 

 form or obovate, glabrous; style thickened at the base, shortly split, about equaling the 

 anthers. Fruits black, smooth, roundish, similar in taste to that of R. nigrum. 



North America; from New Mexico to Virginia and east of the Rocky 

 Mountains into Canada, in woods and thickets. 



(i) var. intermedium Tausch. Janczewski Monogr. 352. 1907. 



R. intermedium. Tausch F/ora 21 : 720. 1838. 



Lobes of the leaves less pointed or obtuse. Flowers more campanular with a shorter 

 receptacle. 



Vermont. This variety is not a hybrid with R. nigrum, as supposed 

 by Dippel (Handbtich der Laubholzkunde III. 296) and the plants culti- 

 vated in Bohemian gardens are probably forms of R. nigrtim. R. ameri- 

 canum is occasionally cultivated as an ornamental shrub, as its foliage 

 assumes brilliant hues of crimson and yellow in the autumn. The whole 

 shrub, especially the foliage, possesses the same heavy odor as R. nigrum. 

 As a fruit plant one variety, Sweet Fruited Missouri, has been in cultiva- 

 tion in the United States; it is said to be a slight improvement upon the 

 common wild black currant. 



Subgenus III. Symphocalyx. Berlandier Mem. Soc. Phys. et Set. Nat. Gen. 3:2, 56. 

 1826; Janczewski Monogr. 244. 1907. 



Aurea. Coville & Britton N. Am. Fl. 22:195. igo8. 



Golden Currants. — Erect shrubs with virgate shoots, throwing out many suckers 

 from the roots. Yoimg growth, cions, and leaves with small crystalline pulverulent 

 glands, glabrous later on. Leaves convolute in bud, of rather firm texture, very variable 

 in shape, from ovate-cuneate to roundish reniform, 3- to 5-lobed, lobes entire or toothed. 

 Racemes short, spreading, or slightly nodding, bracts foliaceous. Flowers yellow or 

 orange-yellow, with a long tubular receptacle, fragrant; sepals spreading or recurved; 

 petals much smaller, erect; petals and stamens inserted at the same level and about as 

 long. Ovary glabrous, style somewhat exserted, slightly bifid. Berries glabrous, yellow 

 or black, without bloom. 



Central and northwestern United States to northern Mexico. The five 

 species of this group are very closely allied and scarcely more than geo- 

 graphical varieties of one species in a broad sense. The differences between 

 them are chiefly dependent upon the size of the receptacle, and as inter- 

 mediate forms occur they are not always readily distinguished. The 



