CLASS V. ORDER I.] RIBES. 329 



surniomitiiig the ovarium, which is smooth or hairy, having also some- 

 times a number of beautiful pink glandular hairs interspersed amongst 

 them, the limb of the calyx of five oblong obtuse reflexed veiny 

 segments. Petals alternating with the segments of the calyx, and 

 fixed into the mouth of the tube, oblong, obtuse, smooth or hairy. 

 Stamens alternating with the petals, on smooth or hairy slender 

 filaments. Anthers two, oblong, bursting longtitudinally. Style 

 nearly as long as the stamens, simple or hairy. Stigma obtuse, 

 notched, or entire. Berry roundish, oblong, smooth or hairy, red, 

 green, or yellow, and very variable in size. 



Habitat. — Woods, hedges, and thickets; not unfrequent. Thought 

 by some persons not to be an indigenous plant, but naturalized. In 

 the North of England, however, as well as Hamilton woods in Scot- 

 land, it has the appearance of being wild. 



Shrub ; flowering in April and May. 



The fruit of the Gooseberry is so well known as a favourite dessert, 

 and applied to so many domestic purposes, as not to need specifying 

 here. The wine made from its green fruit forms an excellent and very 

 favourite beverage, and the making it of a superior quality and flavour 

 is a triumph of considerable importance in the annals of the domestic 

 management of our country dames, and when well made and managed 

 it is little inferior fo champagne ; in fact, it is frequently sold in the 

 shops under that name at a most extravagant charge, and is a fraud 

 upon the pockets of the ignorant, whose palate, untutored in such 

 luxuries, is unable to detect the cheat. 



There are a considerable number of varieties of gooseberries both as 

 to size, colour, and acidify ; the size depending mainly upon the 

 mode of cultivation. In some parts of the country, especially in 

 Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, and other neighbouring counties, this is 

 a very favourite fruit with amateur gardeners, and the success of the 

 cultivation is judged of not by the quantity produced by any plant, 

 but the magnitude of the fruit, and these sometimes are grown to a 

 size weighing an ounce and a half or more. To produce these, how- 

 ever, the tree is sometimes not allowed to bear more than one or two 

 berries, and requires the greatest care in pruning, keeping cool and dry 

 the fruit, &c. ^c. The acidity of the fruit seems in some way con- 

 nected with the colour, lor those of the darkest colour contain the 

 greatest proportion of acid, which is the malic in combination when 

 the fruit is ripe with sugar, and it is from this that the various kinds 

 of berries are better suited to diff'erent purposes, as preserving, kitchen 

 use, wine, &c. 



The gooseberry is, like the currant, found wild in the mountainous 

 districts of the continent; but it is seldom cultivated in the gardens, 

 from its not producing either much or good flavoured fruit. In 



