Currants. 129 



character of the great mass of the annual produce is, 

 after all, by no means without exception. Individual 

 berries often contain one or two seeds that will grow. 

 In some localities there is a decided tendency to the pro- 

 duction of perfect seeds. When, a few years ago, currant- 

 culture was attempted at Leghorn, it failed through 

 the plants, after three or four seasons, producing berries 

 as well charged with seeds as the typical grape. Simi- 

 lar disappointment has been experienced in Sicily and 

 in Malta. In any district at all exposed to storms and 

 heavy night-dews troubles from which the localities of 

 the best Greek cultivation are quite free the currant-vine 

 can never be expected to flourish. We have it in Eng- 

 land, as a curiosity, in the southern counties, and fruiting 

 abundantly out-of-doors if placed against a sunny wall. 

 The delicate little purple-black thyrsi then remind one of 

 those of the privet, only that they are pendulous instead 

 of erect. 



To quit the subject of currants, taken in connection 

 with the country producing them, without a thought of 

 the condition of modern compared with ancient Greece, 

 is impossible. The land of old Homer, of Plato, of 

 Phidias, of Aristides, 



" Clime of the unforgotten brave, 

 Whose land from plain to mountain-cave 

 Was freedom's home, or glory's grave, " 



looks now, for its reputation, to what it may achieve, year 

 by year, in the production of a little berry. The foreign 

 commerce of Greece depends almost entirely upon the 



s 



