RIBES ROBINIA 409 



R. VULGARE, Lamarck. RED CURRANT. ' 



(R. rubrum of most authors, not Linnaus.) 



Little need be said here about the red currant, so well known in its 

 cultivated form in English fruit gardens. It is an unarmed, spreading shrub 

 with three- or five-lobed leaves, 2 to 4 ins. across, heart-shaped at the base ; 

 very downy beneath, and with scattered hairs above, at least when young ; 

 stalk from half to twice as long as the blade. Flowers saucer-shaped, flattish, 

 greenish, produced in recurved racemes from the joints of last year ; s wood. 

 Fruit juicy, red and shining ; in a cultivated variety (ALBUM) white. 



Native of Europe. Of little interest except in fruit gardens. The true 

 R. RUBRUM, Linnaeus^ found wild in Britain, is sometimes met with in gardens 

 under the name of R. Schlectendalii, Lange. Its racemes are horizontal or 

 ascending, not drooping or pendent as in vulgare, and the flowers are urn- 

 shaped or broadly funnel-shaped rather than saucer-shaped. Cultivated 

 forms of this species are grown in the gardens of Scandinavia, but in Western 

 and Central Europe the cultivated red and white currants are exclusively 

 R. vulgare. 



R. WARCEWICZII, Janczcwski, is near R. rubrum, but has larger flowers 

 and more highly coloured, more acid and larger fruits. Flowers of the same 

 shape, but in pendulous racemes. Siberia and Amurland ; introduced 

 in 1903. 



R. TRISTE, Pallas, is the American form of red currant, a shrub of laxer 

 habit than R. vulgare, the leaves white with down beneath when young ; 

 flowers purplish ; fruit red, small and hard. It is said to be pretty and 

 graceful in blossom in the United States and Canada, where it inhabits cold 

 bogs and woods from New Hampshire to Nova Scotia. It is a native also 

 of N. Asia. 



R. PETR^EUM, Wulfen, is another of the red currant group, widely spread 

 in a state of nature in Europe and N. Africa. It has no value as an ornamental 

 shrub, its flowers being green suffused with purple, somewhat bell-shaped, in 

 horizontal or slightly nodding racemes, 3 or 4 ins. long. The leaves are 

 more deeply lobed than in the common red currant, the lobes pointed. 

 Fruit roundish, flattened somewhat at the end, red, very acid. 



ROBINIA. LEGUMINOS^:. 



A genus of about half a dozen deciduous trees and shrubs confined 

 to N. America, whose name commemorates Jean Robin, herbalist to 

 Henry IV. of France, and his son Vespasien. They are amongst -the 

 most ornamental of all hardy trees both in leaf and flower. The leaves 

 are pinnate, and the pea-shaped flowers are borne in pendulous racemes. 

 Pods flat, many-seeded. Stipules often developing into spines. 



All the species thrive well in a soil of moderate quality. If given 

 very rich or manured soil they grow so coarse and rank that the danger 

 of damage by wind, due to the brittleness of the branches, is increased. 

 The best method of propagation is by seed, but in the case of R. hispida 

 and Kelseyi, and garden varieties, it is usual to graft them on roots or 

 stems of R. Pseudacacia. This should be done in spring with leafless 

 scions, and the union is more quickly and surely effected if the plants 

 can be kept in a warm greenhouse. R. Pseudacacia, hispida, and 

 Kelseyi can be increased also by suckers. The only hardy tree with 

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