1 42 Fruits and Fruit- Trees. 



Clicquot. The smooth sorts are the best adapted, also, 

 for that admirable service one in which the gooseberry is 

 very nearly unique, and certainly unexcelled employment, 

 while still green, for the tart, the pie, and the pudding ; 

 and to which end, for refreshment even in winter, it may 

 be stored up in jars and bottles.* In this relation 

 the pie and pudding one, while the fruit is still unripe 

 the value of the gooseberry can hardly be over-rated. 

 To those classes in particular, of the working community, 

 whose occupations keep them much indoors, in shops 

 and manufactories, nature, in early summer, supplies few 

 things more healthful. Indoor workers require a larger 

 amount of the description of acid such as fruits contain, 

 than is needed by people who get plenty of fresh air, 

 and for them the green gooseberry comes in abundantly 

 and cheaply. Let us not forget that other delightful 

 invention, " gooseberry fool," literally foule, i.e. beaten, 

 pressed, or trodden, as when grapes are " trodden " for 

 wine. 



The ease and success with which gooseberry culture 

 may be practised by the cottager has led, in different 

 parts of England, to the institution of annual Gooseberry 

 shows. Foremost among these are the celebrated exhibi- 

 tions yearly held in Lancashire, and at Harborne, near 

 Birmingham, the "Society" at which latter place was 



* The only other fruit, growing in England, which can be eaten 

 while unripe, is the red currant, sometimes brought to market as a 

 poor substitute for the gooseberry. Cucumbers, marrows, peas, 

 and beans, eaten while unripe, though fruits in the botanical sense, 

 count popularly with the "vegetables." 



