B130 



(2 leaves) 

 CURRANTS 



Ri'bes spp. 



Some authors classify the currants and the very similar gooseberries 

 in a single genus, Ri'bes; others separate them into four genera: (1) 

 the currants (R-ibes spp.), (2) the flowering or golden currants 

 (Clirysobo'trya, spp.), (3) the gooseberries (Grossula' ria spp.), and 

 (4) the swamp currants (Limnobo'trya spp.). However, the usage is 

 followed here of Dr. Frederick V. Coville, of the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture, generally acknowledged to be the foremost 

 Jiving American authority on these plants, who recognizes two genera, 

 Grossularia and Ribes, the latter genus including the flowering and 

 swamp currants mentioned above. These shrubs are members of the 

 gooseberry family (Grossulariaceae), which some botanists prefer 

 to regard as a tribe or subfamily of the saxifrage family (Saxifraga- 

 ceae). Under this concept, the genus Ribes includes approximately 

 65 species, natives of the North Temperate Zone, Mexico, and South 

 America, about 56 being native to the western States. The name 

 Ribes, variations of which appear in Italian, Spanish, French, Me- 

 dieval Latin, and other Mediterranean languages, appears to have 

 been derived from rib as, the Persian and Arabic name for an Oriental 

 species of rhubarb (Rheum ribes). Dr. Coville informs us that 

 "from the juice of the young stems and leaves of this plant was pre- 

 pared a famous Arabic syrup, of acidulous flavor. For this product 

 there was substituted in western Europe, in later centuries, a syrup 

 of similar taste made from the berries of the European red currants", 

 to which syrup similar names were applied. There is every evidence 

 that Linnaeus, in his "Genera Plantarum" (1737), was led by this 

 word transference in adopting Ribes as the generic name for the 

 currant-gooseberry group. 



The currants are unarmed or occasionally prickly shrubs with 

 mostly small flowers borne in few- to many-flowered clusters 

 (racemes) or sometimes solitary in the leaf axils. The outer flower 

 part (calyx) is tube- or bell-shaped below and usually 5-lobed above. 

 The five petals are attached to the mouth of the calyx tube, alternate 

 with the five stamens and frequently are smaller than the calyx lobes. 

 The individual flower stalks (pedicels) are jointed just below the 

 seed-producing organ (ovary) and usually bear a pair of more or less 

 conspicuous bracts just below this joint. The leaves are palmately 

 3- to 5-lobed and usually have toothed margins. The more or less 

 edible fruits are red, black, or yellow berries. 



The currants and gooseberries are much alike in general appear- 

 ance, being separated chiefly on the difference in the flower stalks, or 

 pedicels jointed in the currants with the berry breaking away from 

 the pedicel; not jointed in the gooseberries, the berry remaining at- 

 tached to the stalk. Furthermore, the stems (and frequently the 

 berries) of most gooseberries are armed with spines, or prickles, and 

 the flowers (and fruits) are either solitary or in small clusters; most 

 species of currants lack spines on the stems; the fruits are seldom 



