82 'SAXIFRAGACEAE. 
Rises. Currant. Gooseberry. 
(Family Saxifragaceae). 
Loosely branching shrubs with 
rather quickly shredding epider- 
mis: chiefly deciduous. Twigs 
terete but decurrently ridged from 
the nodes, moderately slender, 
sometimes prickly, the prickles be- 
neath the leaf-scars often triple 
and enlarged: pith relatively 
large, pale, round, becoming 
spongy. Buds rather small, soli- 
tary, sessile or mostly becoming 
short-stalked, ovoid or _ subfusi- 
form, with about  half-a-dozen 
rather loose scales. Leaf-scars al- 
ternate, U-shaped or broadly and 
often angularly crescent-shaped, 
slightly raised: bundle-traces 3: 
stipule-scars lacking. 
Ribes, as accepted here, is often 
divided into two genera, the 
gooseberries being separated un- 
der the name Grossularia. Apart from their frequent pro- 
duction of prickles, gooseberries are usually distinguished 
from currants in winter by their narrower leaf-scars. 
Ribes alpinum, which is planted frequently in shrubbery 
masses and resembles a dwarf ninebark, may be distinguished 
from Physocarpus very readily by its narrow leaf-scars, dis- 
tinctly stalked buds, and spongy pith. 
Winter-character references:—Ribes alpinum. Bosemann, 
48; Fant, f. 13; Schneider, f. 180; Willkomm, 30, f. 38.—R. 
americanum. Brendel, pl. 3.—R. aureum. Schneider, f. 180.— 
R. fasciculatum. Shirasawa, 231, pl. 1—R. Gordonianum. 
Schneider, f. 181.—R. gracile. Hitchcock (3), 15, (4), 137, f. 
