26 ELEMENTS OF BOTANY. 
SAXIFRAGACEZ, SAXIFRAGE FAMILY. 
Herbs or shrubs. Leaves alternate or opposite, generally 
without stipules. Sepals 4 or 5, more or less coherent with 
each other and adnate to the ovary. Petals as many as the 
sepals and alternate with them. Stamens as many as the 
petals and alternate with them, or 2-10 times as many. Ovary 
usually of 2 carpels, united only at the base or more or less 
throughout. Fruit generally a 1-2-celled capsule, sometimes 
a berry. Seeds many, with endosperm. 
I. RIBES, CURRANT, GOOSEBERRY. 
Shrubs. Leaves palmately veined and lobed, sometimes 
with stipules. Calyx-tube egg-shaped, adnate to the 1-celled 
ovary, its 5 lobes usually colored like the petals. Petals 5, 
small, generally inserted on the throat of the calyx-tube. 
Stamens 5, inserted with the petals. Styles 2. Ovary 1- 
celled, with 2 placentz on its walls, becoming in fruit a 
pulpy (usually eatable) berry. 
a. (R. RoTUNDIFOLIUM), SMooTH WILD GOOSEBERRY. Spines 
few and short, prickles few or absent; leaves roundish, lobed, with 
the lobes crenate-dentate, often downy; peduncles slender; flowers 
inconspicuous ; calyx-lobes reflexed ; styles and stamens projecting 
decidedly from the calyx-tube ; berries smooth. 
b. (R. Cynospati), Prickty Witp GoosEBERRY. Spines it 
pairs; leaves long-peduncled, downy, cordate, cut-dentate ; style 
single, it and the stamens not projecting from the calyx-tube ; berries 
generally prickly, brownish-purple, pleasant-flavored. 
c. (R. RUBRUM), Rep CurRANT. Stems more or less reclining; 
leaves somewhat heart-shaped, obtusely 3-5 lobed ; racemes drooping 
(Fig. 105) ; limb of the calyx wheel-shaped ; berries acid, eatable, 
red or light amber-colored. Cultivated from Europe, also wild in 
the Northern U. S. 
d. (R. AUREUM), GOLDEN CURRANT, FLOWERING C., MissouRI 
C., Ctove C. A much taller shrub than the common red currant ; 
leaves 3-lobed, toothed ; racemes short and loose ; tube of the yellow 
calyx much longer than its limb; flowers very fragrant; fruit 
brownish-black, barely eatable. 
