2i6 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



Red Currant {Ribes rubrum). 



Associated in the popular mind mainly with the 

 kitchen garden the Red Currant is not a very con- 

 spicuous member of the British flora, being a wood- 

 land plant which occurs only sporadically, or here 

 and there. Doubtless in many cases its distribution 

 is largely artificial, the fruit or berry being dispersed 

 by birds. 



In the British Isles the Red Currant appears to be 

 native or indigenous in the north of England and 

 Scotland, but not elsewhere. In Yorkshire it is 

 found at looo ft. It is also found in Ireland. 



One may expect to find this shrub in woods and 

 thickets, by the sides of streams, and in rocky places. 

 It is found in tussock swamps in fen carr, and in 

 ultimate carr. 



The Red Currant has the typical shrub habit. It is 

 erect and branching. Unlike the Gooseberry, which 

 has prickles or emergences, the Red Currant has 

 none. The leaves are plaited in the bud, smooth, or 

 with a few hairs above, oblong below, long-stalked, 

 with three to five short and broad-toothed lobes, 

 angular, heart-shaped at the base, the lobes scalloped, 

 triangular. 



The flowers are small, greenish-white, numerous, 

 in racemes, erect in flower, drooping in fruit. They 

 are axillary at the base of the annual shoots, downy, 

 without glands, and the ovate bracts are not so long 

 as the ultimate flower-stalks. The calyx is hairless, 



