377 



plants, which, for some reason or other, quite incomprehensible to 

 myself, it is the fashion to look upon with an eye of suspicion, or even 

 to denounce without scruple as a kind of vegetable squatters on the 

 soil of Britain. I may partially except R. rubrum, which is generally 

 admitted to be native to the north of England and Scotland, and Mr. 

 Watson (Cyb. Brit.) seems disposed to credit its " apparent" claim to 

 be thought indigenous in the south also, betraying, by that expres- 

 sion, a still lurking reluctance to concede his full assent to the propo- 

 sition. Passing on to the third species, R. Grossularia, as requiring 

 the same line of defensive argument in its behalf, we find the outcry 

 against its indigenous origin general ; no one has a word to say in fa- 

 vour of a gooseberry-bush beyond praising its fruit, there is some- 

 thing (perchance in its name) which indisposes us to receive it as a 

 true born Briton. Now, although the gooseberry ideally be right 

 pleasantly associated, in a certain savoury mess, with mental simpli- 

 city or imbecility, and even expresses, in its English vernacular, the 

 type and symbol amongst animals of lack of discretion, I will incur 

 the risk of being thought actuated by a fondness for both goose and 

 fool in pleading the right of this useful, though humble shrub to be 

 held an indigenous production, and I would challenge to the argu- 

 ment thus : if R. Grossularia be not a native of Britain, show me 

 where is its true and undoubted home. This is an important question 

 to have answered, because I have uniformly observed, that in the case 

 of all those plants whose indigenous origin it has been the custom to 

 suspect or deny, no attempt is made to show grounds for the opi- 

 nion drawn from the only true touchstone of truth in this matter, the 

 geographical distribution of the species beyond the narrow limits of 

 our sea-girt isle. We must look abroad for the key to this ever 

 vexed question if we would wish it satisfactorily set at rest, which I 

 do not despair of seeing finally achieved ; but this can never be ac- 

 complished so long as we rest contented with taking for granted the 

 unsupported opinions of others derived from a contracted sphere of 

 observation, and neglect the only data which can give us the solution 

 we are seeking. See Phytol. ii. p. 518, note. 



Now I find on consulting a great variety of authentic sources, that 

 R. Grossularia is distributed over the major part of southern, central 

 and northern Europe in precisely the same situations in which I find 

 it here at home, and in no other. I cannot leam that it is a native of 

 Asia,* Africa or America, from whence we might originally have de- 



* The Asiatic representative of our common gooseberry is the Siberian It. acicu- 

 lare of Smith. 



