VARIOUS SPECIES OF FRUITS 127 



ripe fruits and mixing with sugar and water. They also make a good 

 wine. Bar-le-duc and other jams are made usually from the red 

 varieties; jam and jelly also from the black, which are said to lose 

 their strong flavor if scalded for a minute or two and drained before 

 being put on to cook. An old-fashioned remedy for a cold was to 

 make a hot drink by putting a couple of spoonfuls of Black Currant 

 jam into a glass and pouring hot water on it, just before retiring. Red 

 and white varieties have special value for blending with fruits which 

 lack in acidity. They are very often added to Raspberries to make 

 jam and jelly; similarly they improve the richness of the Juneberry, 

 Nay, even the cloying and mawkish Russian Mulberry may be made 

 into more than passable preserves by its acid. 



As a dessert fruit its value is underestimated in America, probably 

 because it is not allowed to ripen properly before being used. When 

 fully ripe, stripped from the stems by drawing the clusters through a 

 table fork, crushed and liberally dusted with powdered sugar, over 

 night or several hours before being eaten, it is delicious for breakfast or 

 supper the very thing for the dog days, its period of ripeness. For 

 this and the preceding reasons the Currant is one of the most deserving 

 of bush fruits for the home plantation. 



CYDONIA, OR JAPAN QUINCE See Japonica, page 152. 



ELDERBERRY 



Until very recently no cultivated and named varieties of the 

 Elder have been disseminated by nurserymen. Maybe this is because 

 the fence rows and the waste places have supplied such an abundance 

 of fruit there has been no apparent need to cultivate this native shrub. 

 A few years ago, however, an Elderberry enthusiast introduced a 

 variety which bears clusters of berries which, if my memory serves 

 me faithfully, are "often half an inch in diameter and in clusters of a 

 pint or more." If this variety is what its introducer claims, it should 

 be more valuable as an addition to the fruit garden than most of the 

 wild plants now occasionally transplanted from the fence rows. 



Elderberry bushes once planted in any soil or situation will take 

 care of themselves except for the occasional removal of old and failing 

 stems and a little police duty .to see that they do not go beyond bounds. 

 In this respect, however, they are not nearly such determined offenders 

 as Blackberries and Red Raspberries. Moreover, they have no 

 prickles and they are beautiful in June when loaded with their great 

 bouquets of fragrant creamy bloom. 



Among the country people, while eaten out of hand more or less, 

 the Elderberry is famous for pies, tarts, canning, juice, syrup, wine, 



