404 RIBES 



R. LEPTANTHUM, A. Gray. 



A deciduous, spiny shrub, 3 or 4 ft. high, with slightly downy, occasionally 

 glandular-bristly young branches ; spines usually slender, solitary, up to | in. 

 long. Leaves roundish or somewhat kidney-shaped, ^ to f in. wide, deeply 

 three- or five-lobed, toothed, the base mostly truncate ; stalk as long as the 

 blade, downy at the base. Flowers white tinged with pink, one to three on a 

 short stalk ; calyx cylindrical, the sepals downy, ultimately reflexed. Fruit 

 oval, shining, blackish red, slightly downy or smooth. 



Native of Colorado, New Mexico, etc. ; one of the prettiest and daintiest 

 of gooseberries lately introduced, the branches being slender and densely 

 clothed with tiny leaves. 



Var. QUERCETORUM (R. quercetorum, Greene], has pale yellow flowers, 

 fragrant, and produced two to four together. Native of California. 



R, LOBBII, A. Gray. 



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

 roundish in the main, f to 2 ins. wide, three- to five-lobed ; the lobes roundish 

 toothed, downy above, downy and glandular beneath and on the stalk. 

 Flowers usually in pairs on a glandular-hairy stalk ; calyx purplish red, 

 downy, the sepals twice or thrice the length of the tube, recurved ; petals 

 white, erect, the stamens much protruded beyond them ; anthers almost as 

 broad as long ; ovary covered with glands. Berry oblong, red brown, 

 glandular. 



Native of N. California and S. British Columbia; introduced about 1852 

 by Wm. Lobb for Messrs Veitch, but not often seen now, although, like the 

 others of this group, very pretty when flowering in April. From the allied 

 crimson-flowered gooseberries in cultivation, viz., Menziesii, amictum, and 

 cruentum, this is very well distinguished in flower by the anthers being 

 rounded at the top (in the others they are tapered like an arrowhead). 



R. LONGERACEMOSUM, Franchet. 



Mr Wilson has recently introduced this extraordinary currant from W 

 China, where it had originally been discovered by the Abbe David. The 

 one character which distinguishes it from all its tribe is its remarkable 

 racemes, from 12 to 18 ins. long, pendulous, thinly set with greenish flowers 

 and afterwards with jet-black fruits which Mr Wilson tells me are about the 

 size of an ordinary black currant and of good flavour. It is a deciduous, 

 unarmed shrub with smooth young shoots and three- or five-lobed, smooth 

 leaves, 3 to 5^ ins. long and wide ; stalks up to 4^ ins. long, furnished with 

 glandular bristles most numerous towards each end. Flowers tubular, bell- 

 shaped, smooth. The species appears to be quite hardy, and is worth the 

 attention of lovers of curiosities and of fruit-growers for hybridising. The fruits, 

 however, are very thinly disposed along the stalk. 



R. MENZIESII, Pursh. 



A deciduous, spiny shrub, up to 6 ft. high ; young shoots downy and 

 covered with long, slender bristles. Leaves roundish ovate in the main, r to 

 2 ins. wide, deeply three- sometimes five-lobed, the lobes toothed ; either 

 smooth or with gland-tipped hairs above, very downy and glandular beneath 

 and on the stalk. Flowers in pairs or solitary on the slender, glandular, and 

 downy stalk ; calyx red-purple with a short, bell-shaped base, the sepals \ in. 



