CHAPTER XVIII 

 BOTANY OF CURRANTS AND GOOSEBERRIES 



Several species of Ribes are very generally 

 cultivated in cold temperate and even sub- 

 arctic climates under the names currants and 

 gooseberries. The two fruits are often grouped 

 as groselles, from the French groseilles, a word 

 now commonly applied to gooseberries, which, 

 however, at one time included currants as 

 well. Originally, the word currants was applied 

 to small seedless raisins, produced from several 

 varieties of grapes in the Levant, the name 

 coming from Corinth, which was the center of 

 the industry. The dried currants of commerce 

 are the cured fruits of seedless grapes and not 

 those of a species of Ribes, continuing the con- 

 fusion in the nomenclature of the two fruits. 

 Currants and gooseberries are very different in 

 aspect of plant, and in appearance and taste 

 of fruit, yet their close relationship is shown 

 not only by similarities in the botanical char- 

 acters upon which classifications are founded, 

 but also by the hybridization of species of the 

 two fruits and the possibility of intergrafting. 

 Ribes is probably an Arabic name for Rheum 

 Ribes, but is supposed by some to be the 

 Latinized form of riebs, an old German word 

 for currant. 



THE GENUS RIBES 



To this genus belong the red, white, black, 

 and golden currants of the gardens, represent- 

 ing several species; cultivated gooseberries 

 coming from two or three species; and a dozen 

 or more species cultivated as ornamentals for 

 their flowers, fruits, or foliage. There are 

 about 150 species of Ribes well distributed 

 throughout the north temperate regions of 

 both hemispheres and of South America. 

 Many species not now cultivated offer possi- 

 bilities for the garden through domestication 

 or hybridization. The following characters of 

 the genus are of importance to pomologists: 



Low prickly or unarmed shrubs. Leaves deciduous 

 or rarely evergreen, alternate, palmately lobed, often 

 fascicled on the branches, mostly plaited in the bud. 

 Flowers perfect or sometimes dioecious, 5-parted, borne 

 in few- to many-flowered racemes, in edible-fruited 

 species greenish, reddish or yellow and mostly insig- 

 nificant ; calyx-tube cylindric to rotate, usually colored ; 

 petals smaller than the sepals, often minute ; ovary 

 inferior, 1-celled ; styles 1 or 2. Fruit a many seeded, 

 pulpy berry, crowned by the remains of the calyx, red, 

 white, purple, scarlet, yellow or greenish, the edible 

 species ripening their fruits in early summer. 



The berry of the currant and gooseberry is 

 an indehiscent, many-seeded fruit, soft and 

 juicy throughout, the product of the inferior 

 ovary of the flower. Fig. 259 shows the flower 

 and fruit of a gooseberry, illustrating the struc- 

 ture of these organs for the genus. 



There are no other pomological plants with 

 which currants and gooseberries can possibly 

 be confused, and the species constitute natural 

 groups so distinct that one can hardly be mis- 

 taken for another. But it is difficult indeed 

 to make sure of the horticultural varieties of 

 the several species. The pomological nomen- 

 clature of these fruits is in a sorry state of 



295 



259. Flower and fruit of gooseberry. A, flower; 

 B, half-ripe fruit; a, calyx-tube; b, ovary. 



confusion. Varieties of both currants and 

 gooseberries are often so nearly alike that it 

 is almost impossible to distinguish them. 

 Nurserymen have been remiss in renaming old 

 sorts, and frequently substitute one kind for 

 another; varieties of currants, at least, come 

 nearly true to seed; and few good descriptions 

 have been published of varieties. Those in- 

 terested in these fruits, therefore, in order to 

 identify varieties, must be well informed as 

 to the differences in organs upon which botani- 

 cal and pomological classifications are founded. 



Size and form of plant. 



The several cultivated species of currants 

 and gooseberries are told at a glance by the 

 size and habit of growth of the plant, almost 

 regardless of structure of organs. Nature has 

 set limits to the size which the several species 

 attain that are seldom overcome by natural con- 

 ditions of environment or by the nurture given 

 by man. So, also, habit of growth serves to 

 characterize species remarkably well. The up- 

 right, spreading, sprawling, drooping, dense, 

 open, much-branched, or little-branched habit 

 distinguish species so that one can hardly fail 

 to pick out the types. Not so with varieties, 

 however; neither size of plant nor its habit 

 of growth serves greatly in the identification 

 of varieties of either currants or gooseberries 

 in any one species, as the plants of all are 

 quite similar. 



European and American gooseberries are 



