ISO 



CURRANT-TREE. TUBES. 



Natural order, Pomacea. A genus of the Pentandna 

 Monogynia class. 



THIS agreeable and wholesome fruit is undoubtedly a 

 native of our country : it was formerly found growing, in 

 the wild state, in the woods and hedges of Yorkshire, 

 Durham, and Westmorland, as well as on the banks of 

 the Tay, and other parts of Scotland. The red currant 

 grows naturally in Sweden and other northern parts of 

 Europe. The white is only a variety of it, and was at 

 first accidentally produced by culture. The salmon 

 colour, or Champaigne currant, is evidently the offspring 

 of accidental impregnation, and it has nothing but variety 

 to recommend it. 



The common black currant, ribes nigrum, is a distinct 

 species of this kind of fruit, as is marked by its strong- 

 scented leaves and berries, and of which even the wood 

 partakes so sensibly, as to impart by its odour a correct 

 idea of the flavour which the fruit gives to the palate. 

 As a further proof of its being a northern fruit, we have no 

 account of its having been at all known to the ancient 

 Greeks or Romans, who have been very accurate in de- 

 scribing all the fruits known in their time. It seems not 

 to have grown so far south as France ; for the old French 

 name of groseilles d'outremer evidently bespeaks it not to 

 have been a native of that country, and even at the pre- 

 sent time the French language has no appropriate name for 

 it distinct from the gooseberry. The Dutch also acknow- 



