236 



GROSSULARIACEAE. 



VOL. II. 



conic, consisting of numerous small heads, greenish ; fertile heads long-peduncled, at length 

 drooping, borne near the base of the sterile; head of fruit about i'-ii' in diameter, the fertile 

 seeds few, with numerous minute sterile ones. 



In low woods, Connecticut and southern New York to Florida, Illinois, Missouri and Mexico. 

 Wood hard, not strong, reddish brown ; weight per cubic foot 37 Ibs. Leaves fragrant when bruised! 

 brilliant in autumn. Its gum, copal-balsam or copalm, used as a substitute for storax. Satin- 

 walnut. Opossum-tree. Bilsted. Alligator-tree. White-gum. Liquidamber. April-May. 



Family 52. GROSSULARIACEAE Dumort. Anal. Fam. 37. 1829. 



GOOSEBERRY FAMILY. 



Shrubs, with alternate often fascicled usually lobed petioled leaves, and race- 

 mose or subsolitary regular flowers, the pedicels mostly bracteolate. Calyx-tube 

 (hypanthium) ovoid, cylindric or hemispheric, adnate to the ovary, the limb 

 4-5-lobed, often colored. Petals 4 or 5, inserted on the throat of the calyx, small, 

 scale-like, often included. Stamens 4 or 5, inserted with the petals, included or 

 exserted. Ovary inferior, i-celled; styles 2, distinct or united; ovules few or 

 numerous. Berry globose or ovoid, pulpy, the calyx persistent on its summit. 

 Seeds horizontal, obscurely angled, their outer coat gelatinous, the inner crusta- 

 ceous. Embryo small, terete, in fleshy endosperm. 



Two genera and about 120 species, widely distributed. Currantworts. 

 Pedicels jointed beneath the ovary; fruit disarticulating from the pedicels; plants without nodal 



spines. i. Ribes. 



Pedicels not jointed; fruit not disarticulating from the pedicels; plants with nodal spines. 



>. 2. Grossularia. 



i. RIBES L. Sp. PI. 201. 1753. 



Shrubs, mostly unarmed, a few species bristly. Leaves palmately veined, usually lobed. 

 Racemes several-many-flowered; pedicels jointed beneath the ovary, usually with a pair of 

 bractlets just -below the joint. Ovary not spiny. Fruit disarticulating from its pedicel. [The 



About 65 species, natives of the north temperate zone, Mexico and the Andes of South America. 

 Besides the following, some 25 others occur in western North America. Type : Ribes rubrum L. 



Stems bristly and spiny. i. p. lacustre. 



Stems unarmed. 



Ovary with sessile glands. 

 Ovary without glands, or with stalked glands. 

 Calyx-tube (hypanthium) obsolete. 

 Ovary glabrous. 



Petals yellowish-green. 

 Petals red. 



Ovary with stalked glands. 

 Calyx-tube (hypanthium) evident. 



Calyx-tube greenish to yellowish-white. 



Racemes very short ; leaf-lobes rounded ; fruit red. 6. R. inebrians. 



Racemes long, drooping; leaf-lobes acutish ; fruit black. 7. R.americaiuun. 



Calyx-tube bright yellow. 8. R. odoratum. 



i. Ribes lacustre (Pers.) Poir. 

 Swamp Gooseberry. Fig. 2197. 



Ribes oxyacanthoides var. lacustre Pers. Syn. 



i : 252. 1805. 

 Ribes lacustre Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl. 2 : 



856. 1811. 



Spines slender, weak, generally clustered. 

 Branches usually densely bristly; petioles 

 slender, more or less pubescent; leaves 

 nearly orbicular, thin, glabrous or nearly so, 

 deeply 5-7-lobed, I'-f wide, the lobes obtuse 

 or acutish, incised-dentate ; flowers race- 

 mose, green or purplish, about 2" long; 

 pedicels slender, bracted at the base, about 

 2" long; calyx-tube short, its lobes short, 

 broad, spreading; stamens very short, not 

 exserted ; berry 2"-$" in diameter, reddish, 

 covered with weak gland-tipped bristles. 



In swamps and wet woods, Newfoundland 

 to Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, 

 Michigan, Alaska and California. May-June. 



2. R. hudsonianum. 



R. vulgar e. 



R. triste. 



R, glandulosum 



