206 SAXIFRAGACE^E. Ribes. 



purple, pleasant. Hort. Trans, vii. 515; Lindl. Bot. Reg. t. 1359. R. villosum, 

 ]S T utt. in Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 547, a soft downy form. 



Var. irriguum, Gray. Leaves more nervose-veiny at base : flowers narrower 

 and whiter, half an inch long. R. irriguum, Dougl. 1. c. (1) ; Watson, Bot. King 

 Exp. 98, chiefly. 



Shady banks and flats, from Santa Barbara northward to British Columbia. The variety 

 N. W. Nevada to Idaho, &,c. Peduncles a half-inch to an inch long : pedicels 2 to 4 lines long. 



6. R. oxyacanthoides, Linn. Mostly glabrous, 2 .to 4 feet high ; the thorns 

 single or triple, small : leaves roundish, usually deeply 5-lobed ; the lobes incised 

 and coarsely toothed : 2 3-flowered peduncles mostly shorter than the pedicels, 

 and these seldom longer than the (3 or 4 lines long) flower : calyx greenish-white 

 or flesh-colored ; its short-oblong lobes at first not longer than the campanulate 

 tube, a little longer than the cuneate-obovate petals, about equalling the stamens : 

 style 2-cleft, villous below, rather longer : berry small, purple, pleasant. R. hir- 

 tellum, Michx. R. saxosum, Hook. Fl. i. 231. 



In the Sierra Nevada at 6,000 to 9,000 feet, from Mariposa Co. (Breivcr) to Sierra Co. (Lemmon) ; 

 thence eastward and northward to the Rocky Mountains, the Northern Atlantic States, and Brit- 

 ish America to Hudson Bay. This wide-spread species, or a northern form of it, is most proba- 

 bly the original A', oxyacanthoides of Linnaeus (Dillenius) ; that of Michaux is R. lacustre ; that 

 of Hooker mainly R. setosum of Liudley. 



* * Calyx-tube saucer-shaped, expanding immediately above the ovary: peduncle 

 racemosely 5 15- flowered : anthers very short, pointless: berry small and currant- 

 like, beset with some scattered gland-tipped bristles. 



1. R. lacustre, Poiret, var. xnolle, Gray. A foot or two high, much branched : 

 branches bristly-prickly or naked, armed with short triple or multiple thorns under 

 the fascicles : leaves small (usually about an inch in diameter), downy-pubescent, 

 roundish in outline, 5-parted, and the lobes incisely toothed and cleft : racemes 

 5 - 9-flowered, short-peduricled : flowers greenish-white ; the open calyx 3 lines in 

 diameter, its short lobes rounded : small petals and stamens very short : berry light 

 red, not larger than peas, acid (intermediate between a gooseberry and a currant), 

 sometimes nearly or quite naked. 



In the Sierra Nevada at 6, 000 to 10,000 feet, from Mariposa Co. northward. Extends mainly 

 in the form of the var. parvulum (mistaken for R. setosum), which is nearly glabrous, east to the 

 Rocky Mountains and north to British Columbia, and in the ordinary and larger form of the 

 species to the Northern Atlantic States, Labrador, &c. 



3. Thornless and priceless : leaves plaited in the bud : racemes few many-flowered : 

 stamens short : berry unarmed (rarely glandular-bristly), many-seeded. 

 RIBESIA, Berlandier. (Currant.) 



* Calyx dilated immediately above the ovary, rotate or saucer-shaped, 5-parted. 



R. PROSTRATUM, L'Her., and R. LAXIFLORUM, Pursh, have their small red berries beset with 

 scattered gland-tipped bristles, in the manner of R. lacustre. The first is unknown west of 

 the mountains of Utah, the second south of Washington Territory. 



R. HUDSONIANUM, Richardson, is between the above and the following, has numerous white 

 flowers crowded in an erect raceme, minute deciduous bracts, and a smooth dark berry. It has 

 not been found nearer California than the E. Humboldt Mountains, N . E. Nevada (R. bracleosum, 

 Watson in Bot. King Exp., not of Douglas). 



8. R. bracteosum, Dougl. Almost glabrous, at least with age, sprinkled with 

 some resinous dots, 4 to 10 feet high : leaves large (3 to 9 inches in diameter), 

 5 7-cleft ; the lobes ovate or narrower, acute or acuminate, coarsely and doubly 

 serrate: petioles long: racemes erect or ascending, many-flowered, 3 or 4 inches long, 

 or in fruit sometimes almost a foot long and loose : bracts persistent, from filiform to 

 spatulate, or the lower foliaceous and petioled, sometimes passing into leaves : flow- 

 ers greenish-white : calyx-lobes roundish : berry black, resinous-dotted, a third of an 

 inch in diameter, and with the flavor of black currants (1). Hook. Fl. i. 233. 



