208 BLACK CURRANT 



The buds and twigs are greenish brown to red -brown 

 with a violet shade, sometimes pronounced, the young 

 tips with a whitish resinous bloom, all glabrous except 

 for the waxy bloom. Lenticels distinct reddish or tawny. 

 The violet hue of the twigs is often perceptible in alder 

 copses, in spring, at a distance. Leaf-bases prominent and 

 decurrent, rendering the twigs more or less triangular; 

 leaf-scars irregularly pentagonal, shield-shaped or rhom- 

 boid, with 5 leaf- traces of which the lower 3 may be massed 

 into one group (Fig. 59 y). Pith triangular. Older twigs 

 dark olive-green to nearly black in the mass. 



In the autumn the stipules of the last leaves formed 

 remain as envelopes for the terminal bud. Each bud 

 begins with two stipules belonging to a leaf next the 

 axis : then follow others, each pair with a leaf between. 

 The leaves are folded on their principal veins and curve 

 round those enclosed (Fig. 34). Spiral f. 



+t Buds with several spiral scales ; and on 

 stalks shorter than themselves ; leaf-scars 

 crescentic, with 3 leaf-traces. 



Buds greenish, with yellow glandular hairs 

 on scales and twigs, aromatic. 



Ribes nigrum, L. Black Currant (Fig. 107). The 

 leaves are plaited in bud, and the leaf-scars extend half- 

 way round the circular twigs. Bud-scales loosely imbri- 

 cated. Twigs greyish tawny with peeling papery epidermis 

 and cortex. The buds tend to be aggregated at the ends 

 of the twigs, which are slightly angular. The strong and 

 rather unpleasant odour of the crushed twigs, and the 

 papery peeling epidermis are characteristic. 



Buds pale brown with a whitish violet 

 bloom; scales closely imbricate: not aro- 

 matic. 



