1877.] REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 41 



fruit. If the average Yankee family would grow more currants it would 

 not have to buy so much anti-cholera mixture. The bowels of children 

 who are permitted to pluck the ripe fruit from the bushes will require no 

 other regulation than that of Kature. The ravages of the currant worm, 

 (Abrazis grossulariata) ^ easily restricted as they are by the timely use of 

 "White Hellebore, have ceased to awaken apprehension. "Why then 

 should not the pomologist throw off this lethargy and, abating neither jot 

 nor tittle of his interest in Strawberry, or Pear, resume the cultivation of 

 this preeminently domestic fruit, than which, in its season, no other can 

 be named so appetizing and welcome ! 



The series of experimental trials of known varieties of the Currant, and 

 of those reputed to be varieties, referred to in my last Report as inaugu- 

 rated by the Royal Horticultural Society of England, in its gardens at 

 Chiswick, were continued during the past season. The conclusions of 

 the Fruit Committee are of so much importance, discriminating as they 

 do carefully between the true and false, and enabling us to guard against 

 the reception of spurious varieties which the greed of dealers or their 

 agents is ever seeking to distribute, that their official Report is repro- 

 duced in its concise and conclusive brevity. 



EED CURRANTS. 



" These were examined with great care as to their nomenclature, so 

 " much confusion still existing among them in that respect. Of the most 

 "approved varieties noted, the earliest and the largest is the Red 

 " Cherry, which has the following synonyms, viz.: Bertin ITo. 9; Grosse 

 " Rouge de Boulogne; Fertile d' Angleterre; La Hative; La Fertile; Fer- 

 "tile de Bertin; Hative de Bertin; Chenonceau; Belle de St. Gilles; 

 "Fertile; Fertile de Palluau; and La Versaillaise. 



" The Red Dutch, which is the variety most generally cultivated in 

 "gardens, rejoices in the following synonyms: Knight's Large Red; 

 "Knight's Sweet Red; Goliath Fielder's Red; Palmer's Late Red; Pit- 

 "maston Red; Pitmaston Prolific; Large Sweet Red; Bertin's No. 1; 

 "Dancer's Selected; and Jackson's Mammoth. 



" The Red Grape, a large bunched sort, of a pale red. Synonyms : 

 " Rouge Transparent; Queen Victoria; Fertile de Palluau. 



"Houghton Castle, the best constitutioned variety. Synonyms: 

 "Houghton Seedling; Orangefield. 



Lost in this Ribearian Babel, well may the perplexed pomologist ex- 

 claim, in the slang of the showman: "just as you like, you little dears. 

 " You pays your money and you takes your choice ! " 



The American Pomological Society has failed to take decisive 

 action in this matter, leaving the grower of Currants to call his fruit the 



