398 RIBES 



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Var. AUREUM. Leaves bright yellow when young. 



Var. LACiNiATUM.Leaves more deeply lobed and toothed than in the 

 type. 



Var. PUMILUM, Lindley. A dwarf variety with smaller leaves, 2 to 3 ft. 

 high, but more in diameter ; a very neat bush. There is a yellow-leaved 

 form of this (PUMILUM AUREUM). 



The so-called var. " sterile ): appears to be merely the normal male- 

 flowered plant. None of the forms of R. alpinum need a rich soil. They 

 retain the neat, compact habit which is their greatest merit, in rather poor 

 soil. The yellow-leaved forms colour best in full sun. 



R. AMERTCANUM, Miller. AMERICAN BLACK CURRANT. 



(R. floridum, L* fftritier.) 



This shrub is unarmed, and closely allied to the common black currant, 

 which it resembles in having three- or five-lobed leaves with a coarse, 

 irregular toothing and a deeply heart-shaped base, and in possessing the 

 same heavy odour, due to yellowish glands on the lower surface. The fruit 

 also is black. The American species, however, is quite distinct in the 

 flowers ; these are nearly twice as long, more tapering and funnel-shaped, 

 and yellow. Moreover, the bract from the axil of which each flower springs 

 on the raceme is longer than the stalk. (In R. nigrum it is small and much 

 shorter than the flower-stalk.) 



Native of Eastern N. America from New Brunswick to Virginia, Kentucky, 

 etc. ; introduced in 1729. As a garden shrub the only quality which recom- 

 mends this currant is that its foliage becomes suffused with brilliant hues 

 of crimson and yellow in autumn. For this quality it is sold in nurseries, 

 often as R. missouriense wrongly, for the true plant of that name is a goose- 

 berry with spiny branches (see under R. Grossularia). 



R. AMICTUM, Greene. AMICE GOOSEBERRY. 



A deciduous armed shrub, 3 to 6 ft. high ; young shoots downy. Leaves 

 \ to i in. wide, roundish or kidney-shaped in general outline, three- or 

 five-lobed, the lobes with often sharp teeth ; more or less downy on both 

 surfaces, especially beneath ; stalk \ in. long, usually downy and sometimes 

 glandular - hairy. Flowers solitary or in pairs on a short downy, often 

 glandular stalk, pendent. Calyx purplish crimson, downy ; the tube 

 cylindrical, 5- in. long ; the sepals \ in. long ; petals rosy white, erect, shorter 

 than the sepals. Berry purple, in. wide, covered with slender prickles. 



Native of California. This pretty and curious gooseberry is not common 

 in cultivation ; the plant that has been distributed for it from nurseries being 

 as a rule either R. Lobbii or R. Menziesii. Its nearest ally is R. cruentum (q.v.}. 

 The specific name refers to the shape of the bract surrounding the base of 

 each flower, which resembles the amict, or hood, worn by Roman Catholic 

 clergy at mass. 



R. AUREUM, Pursh. BUFFALO CURRANT. 



(Bot. Reg., t. 125 ; R. fragrans, LodiHges, Bot. Cat., t. 1533.) 



A deciduous, lax-habited, spineless shrub, 6 to 8 ft. high, producing a 

 crowded mass of stems which branch and arch outwards at the top ; young- 

 shoots minutely downy. Leaves usually three-lobed, often broadly wedge- 

 shaped or palmate, the lobes coarsely toothed ; f to 2 ins. long, as much or 



