THE GOOSEBERRY. 557 



has been planted too deep, or the roots subjected to vicissitudes of 

 drought and wet. 



The plum may be forced by the same treatment as the peach, but 

 with a temperature a few degrees lower. It is generally forced in 

 large pots, either in a peach, cherry, or orchard-house. Many of the 

 choice varieties are higher flavoured when grown under glass, and a 

 few pots of the later sorts placed in a cool orchard-house will furnish 

 a supply of plums of the highest quality right through November, 

 while by forwarding the earliest varieties in a gentle heat plums may 

 be gathered in May. 



The Gooseberry. 



The Gooseberry (Ribes Grossularia, L., and R. Uva crispa, L.) is a 

 deciduous shrub, a native of Piedmont and other Alpine regions, and 

 long cultivated in British gardens. The fruit is of little worth in a 

 wild state, and the shrub does not appear to have been known to the 

 Romans, nor to have been much cultivated in any part of the world 

 except in Britain. With us it is esteemed for pies and tarts next in 

 value to the apple ; and as a luxury for the tables of the poor, it is 

 even more valuable than that fruit, since it can be grown in less 

 space, in more unfavourable circumstances, and brought sooner into a 

 state of full bearing. At the tables of the wealthy it contributes to 

 the dessert from the end of July to the end of September, and longer 

 by matting up or otherwise covering the bushes. 



Use. Before being ripe it is much used for tarts, pies, sauces, and 

 creams, and when mature it is esteemed in the dessert. Unripe goose- 

 berries are preserved in bottles, and the ripe fruit in sugar. Bruised 

 and fermented, wines and brandies are made from the green fruit, and 

 gooseberry champagne is often substituted for that of the grape. 



Varieties. There are now some hundreds of kinds in British 

 nurseries, most of them raised from seed in Lancashire and Cheshire, 

 where the weight of the berry has been raised from ten pennyweights, 

 the usual weight of the old sorts of red and green gooseberries, to thirty- 

 six pennyweights and upwards, the weight of the largest modern kinds 

 that have gained prizes. Pretty extensive lists have already been 

 given at page 401. The following are among the best and highest- 

 flavoured sorts in cultivation : The four varieties of Champagne, 

 Green, Red, White, and Yellow. The Green Gage, Wilmot's Early 

 Red, Red Warrington, Old Rough Red, Rambouillon, Golden Drop, 

 Ironmonger, Keen's Seedling, and Early Green Hairy. 



Gooseberries for a Cottage Garden. Red Champagne and Red War- 

 rington, Yellow Champagne and Early Sulphur, Pitmaston Green Gage, 

 Massey's Heart of Oak and Early Green Hairy, Woodward's White- 

 smith, Taylor's Bright Venus, and Crystal. 



Large Lancashire Gooseberries adapted for a Cottage Garden. Red : 

 Prince Regent, Wonderful, Top Sawyer, Huntsman, Companion, 

 London, Clayton, Lion, Lancaster Lad, Catherina, Drill. Yellow : 

 Rockwood, Sovereign, Smuggler, Stockwell, Telegraph. Green : 

 Niger, Greenwood, No Bribery, Peacock. White : Garden, Anta- 



