FL WEKING SHR L 'BS. 117 



Wild Black Currant. — R. floridnm, (L.) 



When in blossom this Wild Black Currant is an ornamental object. 

 The flowers, of a pale greenish-yellow, are larger than the common 

 garden species, and droop in long, graceful flowery racemes from the 

 branches. The leaves are of a greyish-green, sharply lobed ; the bark 

 grey and smooth ; berries very dark red, deepening when ripe to blackish- 

 purple ; they are large and somewhat pear-shaped, in flavour not 

 unlike the garden fruit. I should think it possessed of a narcotic 

 quality ; certainly it is not very agreeable, though some people like it, 

 and it is extensively used as a preserve. The bush takes kindly to 

 cultivation but is, I think, more ornamental than useful. 



Wild Red Currant. — Ribes rubrum, (L.) 



Is said to be identical with our cultivated Garden Currant. In its wild 

 state the fruit is small, very acid, and not unpalatable or unwholesom.e, 

 but has a flavour of the astringent bark. This woody taste is common 

 to many of our fruits in their natural state, but seems to be much 

 reduced by care and cultivation. 



June-berrv — Shad-bush. — AmelancJiier Canadensis, (T. & G.) 



The June-berries are not only very ornamental shrubs but their 

 fruit is very pleasant and wholesome, especially when mixed with acid 

 berries, such as Currants and Cherries. The tallest of the Genus is the 

 Shad-bush, which is so called from the flowers appearing vvhen the 

 Shad-flies first rise from the water in the month of May. 



The elegant white flowers of this pretty tree (for it rises to the 

 height of twenty feet) adorn the banks of our rivers and lakes and 

 enliven the surrounding woods, breaking the monotony of their verdure 

 by the contrast of its snow-white pendent buds and blossoms. The 

 branches of the Shad-bush are somewhat straggling ; the leaves of a 

 bluish-green, ovate and serrated, white underneath ; the fruit of a dark 

 red, sweet and pleasant. This tree loves gravelly banks, and may usually 

 be found near rivers. It is the tallest of the June-berries ; it thrives 

 well under garden culture and is a pretty object when in flower, but not 

 so much so as the next variety, Amelanchier Catiadensis, var. oblongifolia 

 which is a tall, upright, slenderly-branched pyramidal bush, rarely 

 exeeding twelve or fifteen feet in height ; it is very symmetrical in its 

 growth, forming a fine compact pyramid, covered early in the month of 

 May with an abundance of drooping racemes of elegant white flowers, 

 sometimes tinged with pink ; the blossoms come somewhat before the 

 tender silken leaf-buds unfold. The foliage is delicately and sharply 



