SAXIFRAGACE.E. (SAXIFRAGE FAMILY.) 175 



bryo minute at the base of hard albumen. Low, sometimes prickly shrubs, 

 with alternate and palmately-lobed leaves, which are plaited in the bud (except 

 in one species), often fascicled on the branches ; the small flowers from the 

 same clusters, or from separate lateral buds. (From riebs, a German popular 

 name for the currant. Grossularia was the proper name to have been adopted 

 for the genus.) 



1. GROSSULARIA. (GOOSEBERRY.) Stems mostly bearing thorns at the 

 base of the leafstalks or clusters of leaves, and often with scattered bristly 

 prickles ; berries prickly or smooth. (Our species are indiscriminately called 

 WILD GOOSEBERRY; the flowers greenish.) 



# Peduncles 1-3-flowered; calyx as high as broad; leaves roundish-heart- 

 shaped , 3 - 5-lobed. 

 *- Calyx-lobes decidedly shorter than the tube ; berries apt to be prickly. 



1. R. Cyndsbati, L. Stamens and undivided style not longer than the 

 broadly bell-shaped calyx ; berries large, armed with long prickles or rarely 

 smooth. Rocky woods, N. Brunswick to the mountains of N. C., and west to 

 Minn, and Mo. 



*- - Calyx-lobes decidedly longer than the short and rather narrow tube ; berries 

 smooth, purple, sweet and pleasant. 



2. R. gracile, Michx. (MISSOURI GOOSEBERRY.) Spines often long, 

 stout and red ; peduncles long and slender ; flowers white or whitish , filaments 

 capillary, 4 - 6" long, generally connivent or closely parallel, soon conspicuously 

 longer than the oblong-linear calyx-lobes. (R. rotundifolium, Man., in part.) 

 Mich, to Tenn., west to Tex., Minn., and the Rocky Mts. 



3. R. rotund ifblium, Michx. Spines short; peduncles short; flowers 

 greenish or the lobes dull purplish ; filaments slender, 2-3" long, more or less 

 exceeding the narrowly oblong-spatulate calyx-lobes. W. Mass, and N. Y., south 

 in the Alleghanies to N. C. 



4. R. oxyacanthoides, L. Peduncles very short , flowers greenish or 

 dull purplish : stamens usually scarcely equalling the rather broadly oblong calyx- 

 lobes. (R. hirtellum, Michx ) Newf. to N. J., west to Ind., Minn., and west- 

 ward. The common smooth-fruited gooseberry of the north, the whitish 

 spines often numerous. 



* * Flowers several in a nodding raceme, small and flatfish, greenish. 



5. R. lacustre, Poir. Young stems clothed with bristly prickles and 

 with weak thorns ; leaves heart-shaped, 3 - 5-parted, with the lobes deeply cut ; 

 calyx broad and flat; stamens and style not longer than the petals; fruit 

 bristly (small, unpleasant). Cold woods and swamps, Newf. to N. Eng., west 

 to N. Y., Mich., and Minn. 



2. RIBESIA. (CURRANT.) Thornless and prickless; racemes few- many- 

 flowered, stamens short. 



6. R. prostratum, L'Her. (FETID CURRANT.) Stems reclined ; leaves 

 deeply heart-shaped, 5 - 7-lobed, smooth, the lobes ovate, acute, doubly serrate ; 

 racemes erect, slender , calyx flattish; pedicels and the (pale red) fruit glandu- 

 lar- bristly. Cold damp woods and rocks, Lab. to mountains of N. C., west to 

 Mich., Minn., and the Rocky Mts. 



