376 



Ribes nigrum. Damp or boggy woods and thickets ; rare. In se- 

 veral parts of the Isle of Wight, usually sparing in quantity, but I 

 think truly wild. I am not at this moment possessed of data relative 

 to its distribution on the mainland of Hants. Inhabits the whole of 

 central and northern Europe, even beyond the arctic circle. 



rubrum. Extremely frequent, and in some places abun- 

 dant, in various parts of the Isle of Wight about Ryde, Newport, 

 Freshwater, &c, in woods, thickets and hedges. I have no doubt a 

 genuine native, the wild plant differing in some particulars from the 

 garden variety, much in the same manner and degree as Vitis vinifera 

 in its natural state does from the cultivated grape in the vineyard. 

 (See Phytol. ii. p. 517). I know nothing of its distribution in main- 

 land, Hants. In the woods at Redenham, near Andover ; Mr. Wm. 

 Whale. Widely spread over Europe from the plains to the moun- 

 tains, and in America within the polar circle. 



Grossularia. Frequent, but sporadical, in woods, hedges 



and clefts of rocks in the Isle of Wight, and I believe over the whole 

 county, quite wild. About Petersfield, &c. Very seldom found in 

 fruit ; the few berries I have seen were smooth and amber-coloured* 

 (R. uva crispa, L.). For further remarks on our wild currants see 

 'Phytologist' ii. p. 517 to 521. 



The three foregoing species of Ribes are amongst those unfortunate 



England, and the remainder may reasonably be expected to reward the present 

 active spirit of research which is rapidly increasing the number of our legitimately 

 British vegetables. 



* The non-production of fruit or seed is no argument, scarcely even a presump- 

 tive reason, against the indigenous origin of a species. It sometimes arises from the 

 habitual defect or suppression of the necessary organs, and sometimes from the influ- 

 ence of climate. Of the last we have a notable example in our common ivy (Hedera 

 Helix). This shrub has an extensive range over Europe, but in the more northern 

 parts, as in Sweden, where it is truly indigenous, it is only in very favoured spots in 

 the southern and maritime proviuces that flowers and berries are produced. In those 

 countries the ivy is scarcely known but in that form in which we see it in our woods 

 and on banks, familiarly called barren or creeping ivy. The same is observed in 

 southern Russia (excluding the Caucasian provinces), where Ledebour, and I think 

 also, Pallas, remarks that it never fructifies. I have myself noted this increasing ste- 

 rility of the ivy on advancing into the eastern and inland parts of continental Europe, 

 where the winters are too rigorous for the perfect development of plants of such 

 southern tendencies as the woody Araliaceae. The fruit of Acorus Calamus is so 

 rarely perfected, that its structure is practically known but to few botanists, as Mr. 

 Brown has remarked to me ; yet is it a very widely spread plant, being found over a 

 great part of the globe, as are many other aquatics. 



