474 



ARBORETUM ET FRUTICETUM BRITANNICUM. 



Horticultural Society's Garden in 1838, and seems hardly different 

 from the species. (Gard. Mag., 1839, p. 4.) 



Other Varieties. Till lately, botanists made even the rough and the smooth- 

 fruited kinds of the cultivated gooseberry two distinct species, as may be 

 seen by the synonymes to R. ITva-crispa above; though it was re- 

 corded by Withering, that seeds from the same fruit would produce both 

 rough and smooth-fruited plants. If varieties were to be sought for among 

 the sorts in cultivation, they would be found almost without number. 

 The following selection of garden varieties has been made solely with refer- 

 ence to the habit of growth of the plants : 



The Red Champagne, or Ironmonger, has the branches erect and fasti- 



giate, and will form a handsome bush, 6 or 7 feet high. 

 Horseman's Green Gage is a most vigorous-growing plant, with a spread- 

 ing head, and will form a bush 10 ft. high. 



The Red Rose is a vigorous-growing bush, with a pendulous heatl, but 

 seldom rising higher than 3ft., unless trained to a stake to some 

 height before it is allowed to branch out. 



B. Flowers red. 

 j* 12. R. SPECIO'SUM Pursh. The showy-flowered Gooseberry. 



Identification. Pursh Fl. Amer. Sept., 2. p. 731. ; Dec. Prod., 3. p. 478. ; Don's Mill., 3. p. 185. 

 Synonymes. R. stamineum Smith in Rees's Cycl., Dec. Prod. 3. p. 477. ; ?R. tuchsiotdes Fl. Mex., 



ic. ined. ; R. triacanthum Menzies. 

 Engravings, Sw. Fl.-Gard., 2d ser., t. 149. ; and our fig. 854. 



82)00. Char., fyc. Shrub prickly. Prickles 

 infra-axillary, triple. Branches hispid. 

 Leaves with petiole short, and disk 

 wedge-shaped at the base, rounded 

 at the outer end, indistinctly 3-lobed, 

 incisely crenate, glabrous, and nerved. 

 Peduncles longer than the leaves, and 

 bearing 1 3 flowers. Pedicels and 

 germens hairy with glanded hairs. 

 Bracteas rounded or very obtuse. 

 Flowers of a deep red. Calyx cylin- 

 drical, 4-parted ; the lobes oblong, ob- 

 tuse. Petals of tlie length of the lobes 

 of the calyx. Stamens 4 ; in length 

 double that of the calyx. Filaments 

 red. Style as long as the stamens, 

 simple, red. (Dec. Prod.) A very 

 prickly-branched shrub, with a brownish red aspect. America, on the 

 western coast, and in California. Height, in a wild state, 3 ft. to 4 ft. ; in 

 cultivation twice that height in rich deep soil. Introduced in 1829. Flow- 

 ers deep red ; May and June. Fruit red ; ripe ?. 



The shining leaves and large crimson glittering blossoms (resembling those 

 of the fuchsia) of this species render it a most desirable acquisition to the 

 flower-garden and shrubbery. The leaves, in favourable situations, are fre- 

 quently retained during great part of the winter ; so that it may almost be 

 considered as an evergreen. It will grow by cuttings of the old or young wood, 

 but not so readily as most other species ; and, therefore, it is generally pro- 

 pagated by pegging down the shoots quite flat, and covering them with an inch 

 of soil, as recommended for the propagation of the common plum for stocks. 

 Plants of this species do not grow so rapidly as most others of the gooseberry 

 sections ; and their branches arch over and droop in such a manner, as not to 

 display the flowers to advantage, unless the branches are raised at least to the 

 level of the eye. For this reason, the plant ought either to be grown on 

 elevated rock work, or trained to an espalier or wall. 



351. A. speci'jsum. 



