476 



ARBORETUM ET FRUTICETUM BRITANNICUM. 



858. ft. DiacAntha. 



Spec. Char., fyc. Stipular prickles twin. 

 Leaves with a disk shorter than the petiole, 

 and wedge-shaped, perfectly glabrous, and 

 parted into 3 lobes which are dentate. 

 Flowers upon long pedicels, in long upright 

 racemes. Bracteas the length of the flowers. 

 Sepals rounded, yellowish. Petals small, 

 roundish. Berry ovate or globose, red. 

 (Dec. Prod.) A spiny shrub. Dahuria and 

 Siberia, in rocky places. Height 4 ft. to 5 ft. 

 Introduced in 1781. Flowers yellowish 

 green ; May and June. Fruit ovate, red ; 

 ripe in August. 



A very distinct sort, easily known by its 

 cuneated leaves and yellowish flowers. In 

 Messrs. Loddiges's collection there is a fasti- 

 giate-growing variety. 



* 17. R. LACU'STRE Poir. The lake-side 

 Currant-like Gooseberry. 



Identification. Poir. Encycl. Suppl., 2. p. 856. ; Dec. Prod., 3. p. 478. ; Don's Mill., 3. p. 178 

 Synonyme. ?R. oxyacantholdes Michx. Flor. Bor. Amer. 1. p. 111. 

 Engraving. Our Jig. 859. from a plant in the Horticultural Society's Garden. 



Spec. Char., fyc. Infra-axillary prickles ma- 

 nifold ; the stem hispid with minute 

 prickles. Leaves lobed beyond the middle ; 

 glabrous beneath, rather pilose above. 

 Petioles villous. Peduncles ? upright, 

 ? reflexed, bearing 2 3 flowers upon 

 hispid pedicels. Flowers small, yellowish 

 green. Germen hispid. (Dec. Prod.) A 

 very prickly shrub. Canada and Virginia, 

 in moist places. Height 4 ft. to 5 ft. In- 

 troduced in 1812. Flowers small, yellow- 

 ish ; April and May. Fruit purplish black, 

 about the size of the common black cur- 

 rent ; ripe in August. 



Variety. 



afe R. /. 2 echindtum; R. echinatum 

 Dougl. MSS., and Arb. Brit. 1st 

 edit. p. 992. ; R. armatum Horf. ; 

 has the stems prostrate, while those of the species are upright and 

 rather slender. 



The flowers are those of the currant, and the prickly stems those of the 

 gooseberry. The fruit is about the size of black currants, in pendulous racemes, 

 purplish black, shining, clothed with hairs, and unpleasant to the taste. The 

 plant forms rather a spreading trailing bush, and is therefore more adapted 

 for spreading over rockwork or stones, than for standing erect by itself. Horti- 

 cultural Society's Garden. 



iii. Ribesia Dec. Currants. 



Synonymes. Rtbes sp. Lin. and others ; Calobotrya, Coreosma, and Rebis Spach ; Groseilles en 

 Grappes, or Groseillier commun, Fr. ; Johannisbeere, Ger. ; Bessenboom, Dutch ; Ribes, Ital. 



Sect. Char. Shrubs unarmed. Racemes, for the most part, many-flowered. 

 Leaves plicate. Calyx campanulate or cylindrical. (Don's Mill., iii. p. 185.) 

 Shrubs, the branches of which are without prickles, and the leaves and 

 fruit of which resemble those of the currant more than those of the goose- 

 berry. 



