502 STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 



Ribes alba. Sweert. t. 33, p. i. 1654. 



Grossularia non spinosa, frudu margaritis similis. Jonst. 221. 1662. 



White Dutch. Quint. 143. 1693. 



V. 

 Sweet. 



The figure of Clusius shows this fruit to be the Common Red in form of plant and 

 berry. Sweet-fruited currants, or currants not as acid as other sorts, are known among 

 our modem varieties, and Ray in his Synopsis, 1724, mentions sweet currants of the com- 

 mon species as in Lord Ferrer's garden at Stanton, Leicestershire, England, brought from 

 the neighboring woods. 



Ribes .... fructu dulci. Matth. Op. 152, i. 31. 1598. 



Ribes vulgaris fructu duke. Clns. Hist. 5, iig, fig. 1601. 



Grossularia vulgaris frttctu dulci. Bauh. C. Pin. 455. 1623. (exc. Eyst.) 



This review of -the history of the currant shows that the types of our cultivated 

 varieties have existed in nature and have been removed to gardens. We have no evidence 

 that these cultivated varieties have originated by gradual improvement under cultivation. 

 When we come to subvarieties, we conclude that these have undoubtedly originated in 

 gardens, or at least have been disseminated from gardens. The influence of fertile soil 

 and simlight upon growth wotdd be to effect a greater prolificacy and increased size of 

 btmches; through seedlings, and the process of selection, perhaps continued through suc- 

 cessive generations, these plants which originate larger fruit might have been preserved 

 and propagated. In the first woodcut, that by Fuchsius in 1542, we have apparently 

 the normal wild currant grown under protected conditions; in Castor Durante, 1585, 

 a figure which suggests an improvement over Fuchsius; in 1588, the appearance of the 

 protot5T)e or the original of the Red Dutch. We may hence say that the currant received 

 its modem improved form between 1542 and 1588, or within 46 years. This amehoration 

 of a wild fruit within such a limited period should serve for encouragement and should 

 emphasize the belief, warranted also by the study of other fruits and vegetables, that 

 the seeking of wild prototypes of varieties, and inteUigent growing and selecting seedlings, 

 might give great improvement, even within the lifetime of the experimenter, in the case 

 of other wild fruits. 



To this conclusion our argument leads, yet the fact attained may be stated more 

 concisely, that, in the currant as in the American grape, the improved variety came directly 

 through selecting the wild variation and transferring it to the garden, or from a direct 

 seminal variation from the seed of the common kind. 



R. saxatile Pall, rock gooseberry. 



Siberia. The berries are smooth, globose, dark purple when ripe and full of edible 

 pulp. The acid fruit, mixed with water, forms a refreshing drink.' 



R. setosum Lindl. bristly gooseberry. Missouri gooseberry. 



North America. The berries are black, spherical and hispid, with a subacid, pleasant 

 flavor, a little musky.'' 



' Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 582. 1879. 

 'Lindley, J. Trans. Hort. Soc. Land. 7:24.3. 1830. 



