STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 495 



R. aureum Pursh. buffalo currant, golden currant. Missouri currant. 



Missouri and Coliimbia Rivers. This currant was brought by Lewis and Clark from 

 the Rocky Motmtains to our gardens, where it is now very common and admired for its 

 fragrant, yellow blossoms. In Utah, this currant is extensively cultivated for its fruit, 

 which is much Hke the black currant.' Its oval, blue berries are relished, says Downing, 

 by some persons. Pursh ^ says the berries, red or brown, are of an exquisitely fine taste 

 and larger than a garden currant. Both black and yellow varieties of this wild currant 

 occvu- and aft much used by the Indians of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Texas, Oregon, Cali- 

 fornia and Alaska 



R. bracteosum Dougl. californian black currant. 

 Western North America. At Sitka, the fruit is eaten.' 



R, cynosbati Linn, dog bramble, prickly gooseberry. 



Northern and western United States. The fruit is brownish-purple and eatable. 



R. diacantha Pall, two-spined gooseberry. 



Siberia. The berries are about the size of currants, red and of a sweetish-acid taste.* 



R. divaricatum Dougl. 



Northwest America. The berry, black, smooth, and spherical, one-third of an inch 

 in diameter, is pleasant to the taste. The dried fruit furnishes winter food for the Indians.* 

 Lindley ' says that of all the species which came under his observation during his ioume5:s 

 in America, this was the finest in the flavor of its berries as well as in their size, being half 

 an inch in diameter, sweet and juicy. 



R. fragrans Pall, fragrant-flowered gooseberry. 



Siberia and Tartary. This gooseberry bears red berries that are sweet and pleasant 

 to the taste. 



R. gracile Michx. slender-branched gooseberry. 



North America. Pursh ' says the purple or blue berries of this species are of excellent 

 taste. The berries are glabrous, pvirple or blue and of excellent flavor.* The fruit has 

 a rich, subacid, vinous, rather perfumed flavor, which is extremely agreeable. It is rather 

 too acid to be eaten raw but when ripe makes delicious tarts.' 



R. griffithii Hook. f. & Thoms. 



Himalayas at heights of 10,000 to 13,000 feet. The berries are somewhat austere 

 in taste.'" 



' Case Bot. Index 10. Jan. 1881. 

 ' Pursh, F. Fl. Amer. Septent. 1:164. 1814. 

 DaU, W. H. U. S. D. A. Rpt. 187. 1868. 

 <Don, G. Hist. Dichl. Pis. 3:185. 1834. 

 'Brown, R. Bot. Soc. Edinb. 9:384. 1868. 



Douglas, D. Trans. Horl. Soc. Land. 'j:5i6. 1830. {R. irriguum) 

 'Pursh, F. Fl. Amer. Septent. 1:165. 1814. 

 Loudon, J. C. Arb. Frut. Brit. 2:^71. 1844, 

 ' Lindley, J. Bot. Reg. Aug. 1834. 

 "Mueller, F. Sel. Pis. 419. 1891. 



