PINK WILD CURRANT (Ribes glutinosum, Benth.). Flowers 

 rose to pale pink, or white above, the spreading-lobed calyx 

 colored like a corolla, abundantly borne in many-flowered. 

 long, drooping racemes that open gradually, the bloom thus 

 continuing for a considerable period. Leaves alternate, 1 

 to 2 inches across, more or less wrinkled with 3 to 5 shallow 

 lobes, glutinous particularly on the under side the whole 

 plant exhaling a strong, rather disagreeable odor; blooming 

 in winter and early spring in the lower altitudes of the Coast 

 Ranges of California, particularly to the southward. 



The Pink Wild Currant is an erect much-branching shrub of 

 compelling beauty when in bloom, from 4 to 12 feet high, and 

 quite worthy of the place in flower gardens which is sometimes 

 given it. The black, purplish berry, however, is a calamity, 

 dry and bitter. The plant is quite variable and this and sev- 

 eral closely allied forms described as R. sanguineum, R. mal- 

 raceum, etc., have caused botanists a lot of trouble to system- 

 atize. The root of one of these varieties used to have some 

 vogue among the Luiseno Indians as a remedy for toothache. 



Because of the characteristic odor exhaled by this bush 

 it is sometimes called Incense Shrub. 



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