RED CURRANTS 



BLACK CURRANTS 



299 



The species has been divided into several 

 botanical varieties, but pomologists are inter- 

 ested only in the type species and var. macro- 

 carpum, Jancz. This variety differs from the 

 type in its irregular growth, due to the fact 

 that the lateral branches often have blind 

 terminal buds; larger leaves, more deeply 

 cordate, with a very large middle lobe; ra- 

 cemes usually without leaves at the base; and 

 larger fruits. To this botanical variety belong 

 the large-leaved and large-fruited sorts of 

 which Cherry is typical. The Macrocarpum 

 currants are more tender to cold than the 

 garden sorts belonging to R. vulgare. From 

 this species come most of the cultivated red 

 currants. 



Ribes vulgare is a native of western Europe, 

 being found wild in Great Britain, France, and 

 Belgium. It is a fruit of cold and temperate 

 regions, and its culture was not attempted in 

 the warmer parts of Europe; therefore the 

 species was not domesticated until agriculture 

 was well advanced in northern and western 

 Europe. Its culture was no doubt begun in 

 the fourteenth or fifteenth century; at any 

 rate, it is mentioned as a commonly cultivated 

 fruit in the garden books of the sixteenth cen- 

 tury, and not mentioned previously as a garden 

 plant. This currant was brought to America 

 by the earliest settlers in New England. 



2. Ribes rubrum, Linn. Northern Red Currant. 

 Upright shrub attaining a height of 6 feet ; young 

 growth less pubescent than in R. vulgare. Leaves rarely 

 subcordate, 3-5 lobed, usually tomentose beneath ; larger 

 and thicker than those of R. vulgare and held more 

 laxly, 5 inches across. Flowers greenish or brownish, 

 in spreading racemes, borne on rather stiff, short pedi- 

 cels on one side of the bunch, whereas those of Vulgare 

 swing freely around the bunch ; held out at right angles 

 from the stem, those of R. vulgare being pendulous ; 

 calyx-tube more bell-shaped than in R. vulgare and 

 without the ring inside. Fruits usually red, juicy, with 

 the remnants of the flower at the base. It is not always 

 easy to distinguish this species from R. vulgare. 



Janczewski, now the recognized authority on 

 the botany of the currant, describes several 

 botanical varieties, of which var. pubescens, 

 Schwarz, and var. scandicum, Hedl. are given 

 by pomological students as progenitors of 

 cultivated varieties. Several natural hybrids 

 between this and the preceding species are 

 named, and from it come most of the small- 

 fruited, hardy garden varieties, either as pure- 

 breds or as hybrids with the two other species 

 under cultivation. 



This species is a native of central and north- 

 ern Europe and Asia eastward into Siberia and 

 Manchui'ia. How, where, and by whom the 

 species was domesticated is not known. It 

 is rather less promising in the wild than 

 R. vulgare; there are fewer varieties showing 

 its blood; and since it is not found in regions 

 which came so early under agriculture as those 

 in which R. vulgare grows wild, it is safe to 

 say that R. rubrum came under cultivation at 

 a later date. 



3. Ribes petrceum, Wulfen. Stout, upright shrubs 

 attaining a height of 7 feet ; shoots usually reddish 

 and glabrous ; bush larger than in the other two species. 

 Leaves roundish, subcordate, stout, 3-lobed, middle lobe 

 longest, acute, very dark green, usually puckered or 



blistered, rugose, 3-4 inches across. Flower* in rather 

 dense racemes, appearing later than those of the other 

 two species, pink or red to claret red ; pedicels short ; 

 bracts very small ; calyx-tube broadly campanulate, with 

 short, rounded, ciliate sepals; petals nearly half as long 

 as sepals, with a callosity below the base. Fruits more 

 acid, darker red and ripening later than those of R. 

 vulgare and R. rubrum. 



Several botanical species are distinguished 

 from which garden varieties, it is generally 

 agreed, come; of one of which var. bullatum, 

 the well-known Prince Albert is typical This 

 species comes from the mountains of central 

 and southern Europe, north Africa, Caucasus 

 and from northern Asia. 



The currant does not seem to have early 

 attracted the attention of gardeners, although 

 it must have been seen by civilized men long 

 before the Christian era. It began to be pic- 

 tured and described accurately enough in the 

 herbals by the middle of the sixteenth century, 

 so that it can be said that its domestication 

 dates from about that time. Seedling currants 

 were grown as early as that century, we are 

 told, and no doubt the hybridization of this 

 species with the other two began through nat- 

 ural means as soon as the three types were 

 grown in the same gardens. 



The red currants of the present are a mix- 

 ture of these three species. The relative im- 

 portance of each in the making of garden va- 

 rieties can be determined only by careful 

 analysis of plants from selfed seed. In such 

 an analysis the possibility of mutations must 

 be kept in mind. 



BLACK CURRANTS 



White currants and striped currants are but 

 closely related strains of red species; black 

 currants are quite distinct, belonging to a 

 species as closely related to the gooseberry as 

 to the red currant. Possibly the relationship 

 is closer, since the black currant intergrafts 

 and hybridizes with the gooseberry, while it 

 has not been found that it will do so with the 

 red currant. Black currants are used for 

 medicinal purposes and in cookery, but are 

 little liked as a dessert fruit. The black cur- 

 rant is held in high esteem in Great Britain 

 and parts of western Europe, but has never 

 found favor in America, possibly because of 

 the bitter taste and aroma, described by an 

 old herbalist as "of a stinking and somewhat 

 loathing savour." There are several species of 

 currants with black berries, but only one, R. 

 nigrum, is commonly cultivated. 



4. Ribes nigrum, Linn. Black Currant. Stout, up- 

 right shrub attaining a height of 8-10 feet ; stem, 

 foliage flowers, and fruits having a strong unpleasant 

 odor. Leaves cordate, 3-5 lobed, more or less pubescent 

 and bearing resinous dots beneath ; margins serrate ; 

 lobes broad, irregular, acute. Flowers borne in loose 

 racemes ; calyx-tube broadly campanulate ; petals 

 greenish-purple or dull whitish, half as long as sepals ; 

 calyx and ovary pubescent and glandular. Fruits round 

 or sub-globose, % inch in diameter, black, with a strong 

 odor and taste. 



Botanists describe several natural varieties, 

 one with yellow, another with green fruits. 

 There are also botanical varieties with cut 



