CURRANT. , 263 



It is customary in England to prepare beds on the edges 

 of ponds, which are banked up so as to admit of the wet 

 getting underneath them ; bog or peat earth is considered 

 essential for the roots to run in, but it has been discovered 

 that they can be cultivated in damp situations of a garden, 

 f with a top dressing of peat or bog earth, and if they are 

 once suited as to the soil, the plants will multiply so as to 

 cover the bed in the course of a year or two, by means of 

 their long runners, which take root at different points. 

 From a very small space a very large quantity of Cranberries 

 may be gathered ; and they prove a remarkably regular 

 crop, scarcely affected by the state of the weather, and not 

 subject to the attacks of insects. Sir Joseph Banks gives 

 an account in (Hort. Trans. 1, 71,) of his success in culti- 

 vating this fruit. * In one year, viz., 1813, from 326 square 

 feet, or a bed about eighteen feet square, three 'and a half 

 Winchester bushels of berries were produced, which, at five 

 bottles to the gallon, gives one hundred and forty bottles, 

 each sufficient fur one cranjberry pie, from two and a half- 

 square feet." 



CURRANT. 



GROSEILLER A GRAPPES. Ribes. 



THIS is a genus of well known shrubs, much cultivated 

 for their fruit. It is a native of the Northern parts of 

 Europe, and found in hedges and woods in England ; and 

 there are some species indigenous in America. The fruit, 

 being of an agreeable sub-acid taste, is generally relished, 

 both as a dessert, and in pies and tarts ; it is also much 

 used in making wine, and is grown to a considerable extent 

 for that purpose in Essex, Kent, and about Pershore, in 

 Worcestershire, England. There are ten species cultivated 

 in the garden of the Horticultural Society of London, 

 comprising twelve varieties of red, ten of white, five kinds 

 of black, together with champagne, mountain, rock, upright; 

 Peaasylvanian, &e. Any number of varieties of the red and 



