GOOSEBERRY AND CURRANT TRIBE 29 



The Grooseberry-leaf is, indeed, among the earliest of spring verdure. In 

 France it is much more common in the hedges than with us ; and from the 

 beginning of March the plant may be seen winding its branches among the 

 bushes, and enlivening the dreary season. "In the month of April," says 

 the French writer in " L'Encyclopedie des Sciences," "it attracts by its flowers 

 crowds of bees ; its foliage is very thick then, though other shrubs are just 

 putting forth their leaves, so that it is an excellent plant for decking spring 

 arbours. I have a hedge which borders one of the paths of my April bower, 

 in front of which I have planted primroses, violets, and auriculas, which 

 contrast agreeably with the green background, and form a most graceful coup 

 (fceiV The leaf-stalks of the Gooseberry are beautiful objects beneath the 

 microscope, on account of the delicate border of half -transparent hair-like fringe, 

 which, when magnified, looks like the most brilliant needle-shaped crystals. 



The Lancashire Gooseberries are the best which are grown in our country, 

 and the names of several well-known varieties indicate that they were culti- 

 vated by working-men. All true lovers of their country must rejoice to see 

 the hard-toiling weaver or collier resorting at the close of the day to his 

 little garden, training his plants with care and skill, and striving to gain the 

 prize to be given at the Gooseberry Show for the heaviest gooseberry. The 

 Jolly Miner, Jolly Painter, Lancashire Lad, and many another good fruit, 

 have originated thus, and were the result of industry. These Gooseberries 

 were reared by men who loved their homes and families, men of regular and 

 orderly habits, mostly of lowly birth, but often of elevated feeling and 

 Christian worth; for the lovers of plants and the skilful cultivators of 

 cottage plots are not usually found among the idle and dissipated of man- 

 kind. Gooseberry-bushes often attain great age and considerable size. At 

 Duifield, near Derby, there was, about twenty years since, a bush well known 

 to be at least forty -six years old, the branches of which extended twelve 

 yards in circumference ; and in the garden of Sir Joseph Banks, at Overton 

 Hall, near Chesterfield, there were two very large bushes, which had been 

 trained against a wall, and which measured each upwards of fifty feet across. 

 A writer in the Gardener^s Chronicle remarks of a Gooseberry plant : " It is 

 surprising what eff'orts some plants, or parts of plants, will make to save, as 

 it were, their lives when diseases or serious accidents befall them. A branch 

 of a Gooseberry, trained against a wall, became diseased near the ground, and 

 began to die upwards gradually ; but the top of the branch made a struggle 

 for life, and threw out roots into the wall between the joints of the bricks, 

 and in that dry situation found means to support itself ; the dead wood was 

 cut out, and the living part left near the top of the wall, and there it remains 

 a living plant." 



Gooseberries are of various colours — white, yellow, green, and red. 

 Some of our richest flavoured fruits are of the yellow kind ; the red goose- 

 berries are usually more acid than the others, but thei'e are many varieties 

 in all the colours. We need not comment on their uses for tarts, puddings, 

 and preserves. The fresh fruits are valuable additions to the dessert, and a 

 sparkling wine of crystal clearness, known in country places as English 

 champagne, is made of the gooseberry. The Pecten acid, the vegetable jelly 

 of the older chemists, was also prepared from this fruit. 



