CHAP. LV. GROSSULA^CE.E. RJ^BES. 973 



The Red Champagne, or Ironmonger, has the branches erect and fasti- 

 giate, and will form a handsome bush, 6 ft. or 7 ft. high. 



Horseman^s Green Gage is a most vigorous-growing plant, with a spread- 

 ing head, and will form a bush 10 ft. high. 



The Red Rose is a vigorous-growing bush, with a pendulous head, but 

 seldom rising higher than 3 ft., unless trained to a stake to some 

 height before it is allowed to branch out. 



Description, Gengraphi/, ^-c. The gooseberry, in a wild state, is a low 

 shrub, var)ing much in habit and magnitude, according to the soil and si- 

 tuation in which it is found. Villars, in his Histoire des Plantes du Dau- 

 phine, mentions that the gooseberry is common every where in that country ; 

 that in hedges it grows to the height of 5 ft. or 6 ft., with large villous leaves ; 

 but that on mountains it is seldom found so high as 2 ft., and with very 

 rough branches, wholly covered with yellowish stiff prickles. In England, 

 the gooseberry is found on old walls, in woods, and in hedges ; and, in Scot- 

 land, occasionally in the neighbourhood of villages ; and, though undoubtedly 

 naturalised in both countries, it appears to us very doubtful whether it is 

 aboriginal in either. It is, however, truly wild in France, Germany, and 

 Switzerland, more particularly in the Valais and in Piedmont, where it is 

 called griselle, and where it is found in copse-woods, producing a small, 

 green, hairy fruit. The common gooseberry, or a species nearly allied to it, 

 Royle observes, is found in the Himalayas, on mountains near the almost 

 inaccessilile sources of the Ganges. There can be little doubt of its being 

 indigenous in North America, where it is known by botanists under various 

 names. Among other localities, we may cite as one the rocks about the 

 Falls of Niagara, whence branches and ripe fruit have been sent to us. When 

 the bush is of any considerable size, it is always found in a tolerably dry 

 and loose free soil, and in a situation rather shady than otherwise ; unless 

 we except the instances in which the seeds have been carried by birds to the 

 tops of walls, the summits of ruins, and the hollow trunks and partially de- 

 cayed branches of old trees. In the famous lime tree at Neustadt, in Wur- 

 teraberg, gooseberries are grown in the hollow branches, and the fruit sold 

 to strangers, as mentioned in detail in p. 372. 



Historj/. The gooseberry does not appear to have been known to the 

 ancients; and it is uncertain at what period in modern times it began to be 

 cultivated in gardens. The earliest notice of it appears to be in the Co7n- 

 vientaries of Matthiolus, who states that it is a wild fiuit, which may be used 

 medicinally. Among British authors, it is first mentioned by Turner, in 1573, 

 and afterwards by Parkinson and Gerard; the last noticing it not only for 

 its medicinal properties, but for its use in cookery. In the first edition oi Die 

 Hamel, the gooseberry does not appear to have been cultivated about Paris ; 

 but he says it was to be found in abundance in hedges and thickets, whence 

 it might be transplanted into cultivated grounds, the bark having the advantage 

 of not being liable to be eaten by the rabbits, on account of its prickles. 

 The Dutch appear to have been the first who brought the fruit to any consi- 

 derable size. In Les Agremens de la Camjjagne, published in 1750, " les 

 groseilles " are said to be no where so good as in Holland; and directions 

 are given for propagating, training, and pruning the plants, so as to bring 

 the fruit to a large size, which vary very little from the most approved prac- 

 tice of the best Lancashire growers of the present day ; and accordingly, in 

 the Xouveau Du Hamel, it is stated that M. Delauny had seen, in Holland, 

 gooseberries as large as plums. Allioni, in his Auctuarium ad Floram 

 Pedemontanam, published in 1 789, says that the fruit of the gooseberry is 

 eatable, though it is somewhat astringent; but that it is neglected in Pied- 

 mont. In Britain, the earliest notice of the culture of the gooseberry is in Ray, 

 who mentions the pearl gooseberry as in cultivation. The fruit appears to 

 have been in little esteem in England, even so late as in Miller's time, though 

 the currant was then in some repute; and in the same work it is stated, that 



