1 1 4 Saxifrage (Saxifragacecz) 



(3) Genus RIBES, L. (Gooseberry, Currant.) 



Flowers, small, white, greenish, or purple. Petals, five. Stamens, five. 



Calyx, often colored. Seed-case, united to the calyx, one-celled, 



many-seeded. Styles, two, distinct or united. 

 Leaves, simple, alternate, edges lobed, the lobes more or less toothed, 



folded fan-like in the bud. Stem, smooth in the currants, in the 



gooseberry with spines, and often with prickles. 

 Fruit, crowned with the remains of the calyx, many-seeded. A berry. 



GUIDE TO THE SPECIES. 



Flowers, greenish or purplish. Stems with thorns at the base of the leaf-stems, and 



usually with scattered prickles, (i to 5) gooseberries. 

 Flowers, whitish. Stems without thorns or prickles. (6 and 7) currants. 



Fig. 50. (i) Prickly Gooseberry. R. cyndsbati, L. 



Flowers, greenish-white, drooping in clusters of one to 

 three blossoms. Lobes of the calyx, much shorter 

 than its tube. Stamens, and undivided Style, not 

 longer than the calyx. May, June. 



Leaves, three- to five-lobed. Leaf-stem, downy. Stems, 

 mostly without scattered prickles, but with one to 

 three spines near the axil of each leaf. 



Fruit, large, usually armed with long prickles, brownish- 

 purple ; edible. 



Found, from the mountains of North Carolina northward 

 and westward ; common. 



A shrub about four feet high. 



(2) Common Wild Gooseberry. R. oxyacanthoides, L. 

 Flowers, greenish or purplish, in drooping clusters of one 

 to three blossoms. Lobes of the calyx much longer 

 than the short tube. Stamens, scarcely as long as 

 the broadly oblong calyx-lobes. Style, two-cleft. 

 Flower-stems, short. May, June. 



Leaves, roundish, heart-shaped, three- to five-lobed. Spines, 



