CURRANT 



CURRENCY 



623 



also for making an agreeable and refreshing 

 beverage, culled in France Enu de Grosscillev 

 (inatlu of the juice of the fruit, water and sugar, 

 H trained ami ieeil ), and a well-known fermented 

 li<|inir called Ciu-nnit Wine (q.V.). The White 

 ( mi, nit is a mere variety of tlie red, the result of i 

 cultivation, with fruit leas acid, and more tit for j 

 dessert, generally also 

 rather larger. There 

 are many sub-varie- 

 ties, and many inter- 

 mediate shades of col- 

 our. Both the red and 

 t lie white currants are 

 either trained as stan- 

 dard hushes, or against 

 walls, the latter treat- 

 ment producing larger 

 and liner fruit, and 

 both are sometimes 

 trained on a north 

 wall, to retard their 

 ripening till after the 

 ordinary season. They 

 grow readily, like the 

 shrubs of this genus 

 in general, from cut- 

 tings. Unlike the 

 black currant, the red 

 and the white grow in 

 clustered bu nches. 

 The Black Currant (R. 

 nig rum ), Cassis of the 

 French, grows in moist 

 woods, and on the 

 banks of streams in 

 Europe and the north 

 of Asia.' The fruit is 

 much larger than the 

 red currant, and culti- 

 vation has lately pro- 

 duced varieties re- 

 markable for size. 

 There is a variety 



found in Russia with yellow berries. The jelly 

 and preserve made from it are very useful for sore 

 throats, as is also black currant vinegar, made in 

 the same manner as raspberry vinegar. In Russia, 

 the berries are gathered in large quantities in the 

 woods, and dried in ovens, to be used in pies. They 

 are tonic, and also slightly diuretic and sudorific. 

 A liqueur, called Liqueur de Cassis, is prepared in 

 France from the black currant, and it has been 

 suggested to introduce this manufacture in the 

 Hebrides and Shetland Islands. Those who are 

 fond of the flavour of green tea in mixture with 

 black, but to whom it is injurious, may effectually 

 gratify their taste by dropping one or two leaves or 

 a bud or two of black currant into the teapot during 

 the process of infusion. Many other species, some 

 of them probably deserving of cultivation, are found 

 in temperate and cold climates in almost all parts 

 of the world. One with large beautiful red berries, 

 occurs on the Himalaya at an elevation of 13,000 

 feet. R. oxyacanthoitfes, a native of North America, 

 is much like the common gooseberry in flavour, and 

 the colour is red or green in different varieties. R. 

 lacitstre, also a North American species, produces 

 its fruit in bunches, a fruit like that of the black 

 currant. The fruit of R. fraqrans is sweet, but 

 the species is more remarkable for the produc- 

 tion of a pleasant balsamic resin which exudes 

 from the under side of the leaves in yellow droj 

 and has the smell of black currants. The Red- 

 llowered Currant (R. sanguineum), now so com- 

 mon as an ornamental bush in shrubberies, and 

 trained on walls, producing in April a profu- 

 sion of deep-red flowers in large drooping racemes, 



Red Currant 



is a native of the north-west of America, and was 

 introduced into Britain in 1826. It* bluish-black, 

 mucilaginous, insipid berries are not, as is popu- 

 larly believed, poisonous. The Golden Currant (It. 

 aureum), also a very ornamental shrub, from the 

 same regions, has a tubular calyx and long golden- 

 yellow flowers. Its fruit, which is either yellow or 

 black, and of fine flavour, is not freely produced in 

 Britain. The name Native Currant, or Australian 

 Currant, is given in Australia to the berries of 

 different shrubs, particularly the white berries of 

 Leucopogon Richei (order Epacridacete). Other 

 fruits bearing the same name are produced by 

 species of Coprosma (order Cinchonacea; ), but they 

 are very inferior. 



Currants a -'''" kind of raisin, are the dried 

 red or blue berries of a small-fruited seedless variety 

 of the common vine, which is cultivated in the East, 

 and especially the Ionian Islands and in Greece. 

 The name, originally liaisins de Corinthe, is derived 

 from the city of Corinth, in the neighbourhood of 

 which they were first cultivated. They are very 

 small, round, with a thin skin, without seeds, and 

 very sweet. Those brought from the island of 

 Zante are most esteemed. The grafting, pruning, 

 trimming, and irrigating of the vine-stocks, which 

 of late have suffered from the phylloxera, involve 

 much labour. As the grapes ripen, the bunches 

 are dusted with sulphur, to keep off the dreaded 

 Oidium (q.v. ); rain at this period always injures 

 and sometimes ruins the crop. The vintage is in 

 August. The currants when ripe are spread out on 

 drying-grounds in layers half an inch thick, and 

 frequently turned. The currants, now loosened 

 from the grape-stick, are tightly packed in barrels 

 for exportation, and are an important Greek export. 

 In a few districts of Greece, a very sweet wine is 

 made from currants. The duty on currants im- 

 ported into Britain fell from 44s. per cwt. liefore 

 1834 to 7s. in J860. Our ini[>ort is about 126,000 

 tons per annum. In 1877-91, when the vines were 

 suffering from the phylloxera, France imported 

 enormous quantities for wine-making. 



Currant Wine is made of the juice of red or 

 white currants, to which is added about one pint of 

 water for every four pints of berries employed. 

 About a pound and a half of sugar is afterwards 

 added to each pint of the liquor, a little spirits being 

 generally also added, before it is set aside to ferment. 

 A larger quantity of sugar is sometimes employed, 

 and no water, and a stronger and sweeter currant 

 wine is thus produced. Fermentation requires 

 several weeks, and the wine is not fit for use for 

 at least some months afterwards. Black currant 

 wine is made in the same way from black currant*, 

 but the fruit is put on the lire in as small a quan- 

 tity of water as possible, and heated to the boiling- 

 point l>efore it is bruised. 



Currency means originally the capacity of 

 being current, or, as Johnson defines it, ' the power 

 of passing from hand to hand.' It is applied in 

 practice to the thing that is so current, ana gener- 

 ally to whatever, uy being current among any 

 nation or class of persons, serves as the money with 

 which they buy commodities or pay their debts. It 

 is necessary to be content with a practical explana- 

 tion, without venturing on a scientific definition of 

 the term, because, among the many disputed points 

 in political economy, there is none productive of 

 more exciting controversy than the proper regula- 

 tion of the currency ; and the advocate of each 

 theory is apt to define the term according to the 

 viow'he takes of the functions of government 

 regarding currency. Whether correctly or not, it 

 is applied in practice to everything that in received 

 for payment. It differs from the word money, in its 

 popular acceptation, iu as far as it includes various 



