500 sturtevant's notes on edible plants 



in 1856, 25 varieties in 1866 and 23 varieties in 1885. The Report of the American Pomo- 

 logical Society for 1883 names as worthy of culture the following: Angers, Cherry, Fay's 

 Prolific, Knight's Red, Palluau, Prince Albert, Red Dutch, Red Grape, Versailles, Victoria. 

 White Dutch and White Grape, or 12 varieties in all. 



The currant fruit has not changed at all in type under culture, but has furnished 

 variety characteristics in increased size, diminished seed and improved quality. The wild 

 plant bears currants like those of the cultivated, but more seedy and fewer on the bunch. 

 Removed to the garden and placed under protective influences, the plant becomes more 

 upright and more prolific and the bimches better filled, but the berries are no larger than 

 those that may be found in the woods. Seedlings in general present the characters of 

 but a slightly improved wild plant. Some individuals bear bunches but little, if at all, 

 better than those borne by selected wild plants, and it is doubtful whether, from the 

 examination of plants, botanists could determine whether a given plant was truly wild 

 or but an escape from cultivation. If the testimony of the herbalists be credited, red, 

 white and sweet currants are found in nature. Hence we may believe that these natural 

 varieties are the prototypes of those that occur in gardens, and that horticultural gain 

 has been only in that expansion which comes from high cultiu-e, protective influence and 

 selection propagated by cutting or division. 



The currant reached Massachusetts' from England about 1529, and this would indi- 

 cate its culture in the British Isles, yet, as before stated, the currant does not appear in 

 Tusser's list of fruits in 1557, nor in Turner's Libellus 1538, is scarcely mentioned by 

 Gerarde in 1597, and in Lyte's English translation of Dodoens is distinguished by the 

 English names " Red Gooseberries, Beyond-sea Gooseberries, Bastarde Corinthes and Com- 

 mon ribes." Plat's Garden of Eden, 1653, does not mention currants, although it purports 

 to give " an accurate description of all Flowers and Fruits now growing in England," 

 yet Parkinson's Paradisus, published in 1629, mentions the red and the white sorts. The 

 French and Dutch names of transmarina or outre mer or over zee in various combinations 

 indicate that the plant was brought from beyond their boundaries, while the old French 

 name of ribetts, as given by Pinaeus, 1561, Cameraius, 1586, and Castor Durante, 1617, 

 seems derived from the Danish ribs and Swedish resp or risp. In general, however, the 

 vernacular name in the various covmtries was foimded upon the generic name of the goose- 

 berry. De CandoUe thinks the currant reached culture from the Danes or the Normans, 

 that is from the northern countries, and in this opinion we concur. It seems, moreover, 

 quite certain that the improved currant originated in the Low Covmtries, whence it 

 received distribution where better varieties were appreciated. 



The botanical names and sjmonyms of the ciirrant are: 



I. 

 Common Red. 

 This type differs but slightly from the wild form, the bimches being slightly larger 

 and usually better filled, or in some cases not differing. It may be considered as the 

 wild form improved by shght selection and high culture. 



^ Mass. Records i\2^. 1853. 



