LETTERS FROM RUSSIA.— XVI. 



Fi(i. 1IS7. — Jaru.slav Niemetz. 



'E have a great many inter- 

 esting and novel plants from 

 middle Asia, and the rail- 

 road now being built will 

 furnish us with more. Some of these 

 are edible and may be worthy of culti- 

 vation. At present they are under trial 

 in the Imperial Botanic Garden at St. 

 Petersburg. Being desirous to serve 

 the Dominion Experimental Farms at 

 Ottawa, the officers of which, willingly 

 give me information concerning Cana- 

 dian fruit culture, I have written to 

 Siberia for seeds of the following plants, 

 the further trial of which will b^ made 

 at Ottawa and will show whether they 

 are of use in Canada. 



I. Rubus Xanthocarpus. Bur. and 

 Franch. This new species of raspberry 

 was found in i88s'bythe Russian travel- 

 ler, G. N. Potapin, in China, Province 

 of Kanzu, and was previously described 

 by French Scientist Bureau and Fran- 



chet. It is a low plant, about one foot 

 in height with herbal, prickly, suspended 

 leaves. The fruit is ovoid, light yellow, 

 sweet and palatable. At St. Petersburg 

 it ripens about the middle of July. This 

 plant has proven hardy in Northern 

 Russia and is fit for cultivation on a 

 large scale. 



2 Ribes Dikushn. Fish. (Blue cur- 

 rant of Siberia). This species was discov- 

 ered by the Russian botanist N.T. Turch- 

 aninoff in Eastern Siberia and was de- 

 scribed by botanist Fisher. It very 

 much resembles the common black 

 currant (Ribes nigrum) but there is a 

 difference in the forms of leaves, calyx 

 and pistil. In size and flavor, the ber- 

 ries resemble those of black currant, 

 but are blue and green in color. Turch- 

 aninoffsays that if eaten, they will make 

 people drunk. The plant grows in moist 

 places and is hardy in the botanic gar- 

 dens at St. Petersburg. 



3 Ribes Procumbens. Fall. Moss 

 currant, this was found by botanist 

 Pallas in Siberia. It is not new, but 

 cannot be got in European gardens, be- 

 cause of the difficulty in distributing 

 it by seed, and live plants could not 

 endure so long a journey. Formerly 

 the Botanic Garden at St. Petersburg 

 got some live plants from Nerchinsk. 

 The bush is low with creeping twigs, and 

 yields brown berries, twice as larger as 

 those of common black currant. It 

 grows only in moist soil, along rivulets. 

 The edible berries ripen late in summer 

 and are very much esteemed by the 

 inhabitants of Eastern Siberia. 



4. Ribes Diaaintha. Pall. Siberian 

 gooseberry. The bush of this variety 

 resembles the currant, but has prickly 

 twigs and leaves. The berries red, sub 

 acid and are about the size of common 



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