396 THE EVOLUTION OP OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



more slender, graceful habit than the other, thinner 

 and plane-edged leaves (Fig. 95), and smooth ovary 

 and fruit (Figs. 97-99). This wild gooseberry is na- 

 tive in swales and low woods in the northern states, 

 and westward to Colorado. Pale Red, a variety which is 

 popular in many places, is also Ribes oxyacanthoides ; 

 and so, too, I am convinced, is the Downing. Beach* has 

 recently suggested that the Downing is a hybrid of 

 Ribes oxyacantlioides and R. Grossularia, giving, among 

 other reasons for such belief, the fact that its seedlings 

 vary towards both species. But even if the two species 

 were distinct enough to allow young plants to be re- 

 ferred definitely to one or the other, I should still doubt 

 the hybrid origin of the Downing. The evolution of 

 these gooseberries is graphically shown in Figs. 97 to 99. 



The commonest wild gooseberry east of the Plains 

 is the spiny -fruited, thick-skinned and long -clustered 

 species, Ribes Cynosbati, Fig. 100. It is to this species 

 that the Mountain belongs (page 394) . Beach considers 

 this variety to be a hybrid between Ribes Cynosbati 

 and the European gooseberry. Although the fruit 

 of Ribes Cynosbati is normally hairy or spiny, smooth- 

 fruited forms often occur. Several persons have made 

 promising efforts to ameliorate the species. t 



Judged by European standards, the American goose- 

 berry is yet far short of perfection. The English 

 gooseberry fanciers have kept records of the heaviest 

 berries at the shows for two generations, much as a 

 horse fancier keeps records of fast stock. The fol- 

 lowing records from the "Gooseberry Growers' Reg- 

 ister" for 1880 may interest the reader: 



*Bull. 114, N. Y. State Exp. Sta. 



tSee, for example, B. A. Mathews, in Kept. Iowa Hort. Soc. 1893. 



