546 



it was to be expected that some would approach nearer to wild 

 varieties. 



On the 5th of May there were still several fi'esh-opened flowers, and 

 even some unopened buds, on the bushes in my garden. In those 

 recently expanded, the filament was about equal in length to the 

 breadth of the anther ; but in those which were fading, the filament 

 was twice as long. (Such an elongation of the filament is observable 

 in many plants). The lobes of the anthers, out-topping the connec- 

 tivum, were separated by a space equal to their own breadth, or near- 

 ly so ; being thus unlike the figure in 'English Botany,' and corres- 

 ponding well with Dr. Bromfield's apt comparison to the head or 

 " handle of a crutch." 



On some bushes the flowers were of one uniform and yellowish 

 green colour ; while on others, each lobe of the calyx had a large 

 blotch of brown or dull purple. The leaves of all had the character 

 mentioned by Dr. Bromfield, though not equally so. 



Thus, my garden bushes agree with the variety " sativum," in the 

 main ; but in the character of the anther, and partially in the colour 

 of the flower, they belong rather to the variety " sylvestre." More- 

 over, I have several times observed that the leaves of stray seedlings, 

 which spring up about the kitchen garden, and also (bird sown) 

 among the shrubs in the flower-garden, are much more pubescent than 

 those of their presumed parents, the cultivated bushes ; nevertheless, 

 some of these young examples have shown their parent foliage. As 

 such stray seedlings usually fall victims to the gardener's destructive 

 labours, 1 cannot now find one of them sufiiciently advanced to pro- 

 duce flowers. But under the facts here stated, the differences ob- 

 served by Dr. Bromfield do not appear conclusive arguments against 

 the likelihood of the wild bushes in the Isle of Wight being bird- 

 sown descendants of the garden currants. They may have multiplied 

 in their wild state ; but this fact, if it be such, will not make them 

 " natives," in case their primary stock was that of the gardens. 



Dr. Bromfield's opinion is no slight testimony in favour of the view 

 which makes the currant a true native of Hampshire and Sussex. 

 Still, it appears to myself, that in the absence of certain proof either 

 way, the probability leans against the native claim of the red currant 

 in the midland and southern counties. The propagation of fruit from 

 seeds by the agency of man and birds, is an admitted and familiar fact; 

 and we do not find currant bushes so numerous and general in the 

 southern half of England, as to give this instrumentality the semblance 

 of a cause inadequate to the results observed. I may confidently say 



