THE GOOSEBERRY AND CURRANT. 137 



the prickly bush . on which they grow, while some gar- 

 deners believe that it alludes to the gross or thick skin of 

 the fruit, and others again trace its etymology in the fact 

 of its having been formerly much used as a spring sauce 

 for the goose. In some counties it bears the name of 

 Eeaberry, contracted from feverberry, the juice having been 

 considered beneficial in fever. 



Before it has opened, the blossom of the gooseberry* in 

 size, shape, and colour very nearly resembles a grape- 

 stone. When fully blown it is seen to consist of a green 

 calyx, slightly tinged perhaps with dull red, and divided 

 at the edge into five sepals ; at the base of these rise five 

 tiny colourless scales, which represent petals, and between 

 these are the five stamens ; the whole arranged upon a 

 central ovary, situate below the floral part, and looking 

 like a sudden swelling of the flower-stalk. Ere long this 

 ovary swells more and more ; it is soon traceable that 

 there are little seeds within it, arranged in two groups, 

 and attached to its sides by threads; and when eventually 

 it has become a large juicy berry, these seeds are still 

 fettered to its walls and sustained amid the pulp by the 

 same soft but firm ligatures. And though the blossom 

 has long since withered, its principal part, the calyx, has 

 not disappeared, but merely dried up, and, now, brown 

 and shrivelled, still clings to the object which has so dis- 

 tended beneath it, and keeps the same place to the last 

 upon the great berry which it did at first upon the little 

 ovary a relic of humble origin retained by the expanded 

 fruit, like the apron preserved by the ex-blacksmith of 

 Persia in all the exaltation of royal grandeur. f \j 



Even at its best estate this blossom of the gooseberry 

 had been so small and insignificant making little more 

 show while unopened than a leaf-bud, and scarcely dis- 

 tinguishable in its lair among the leaves even when full 

 blown that, comparing it with the great and gorgeous 

 flowers which kindle the cactus into stars of flame, it 

 might appear as reasonable for a linnet to claim cousin- 

 ship with a peacock as for these most opposite-seeming 



* See Plate III., fig. 1. 



