134 HISTORY OF FRUITS. 



made at less expense than moderate cider can be bought 

 for. Diluted in water, this wine is an excellent drink in 

 the hot season, particularly to those of feverish habits. 

 It makes an excellent shrub ; and the juice is a pleasant 

 acid in punch, which, about thirty years back, was a 

 favourite beverage in the coffee-houses in Paris. 



The best English brandy we have tasted was distilled 

 from weak currant wine, by a gentleman at Windsor ; and 

 there is no doubt but it could be made superior to the 

 common brandies imported from France, were it encou- 

 raged, and certain restrictions taken from the distiller. 



The black currants, which were formerly called squi- 

 nancy berries, on account of their great use in quinsies, 

 are natives of Sweden and the northern parts of Russia, 

 as well as the northern counties of England, where they 

 have been found in their natural state, growing in alder 

 swamps, and in wet hedges by the banks of rivers. In 

 some parts of Siberia, the black currants are said to grow 

 to the size of hazel-nuts. A new variety of the black 

 currant has lately been cultivated in Cambridgeshire, the 

 fruit of which is so large, that a single berry weighed 

 sixty-one grains, and measured two inches and a half in 

 circumference. The inhabitants of Siberia make a drink 

 of the leaves: in Russia a wine is made of the black 

 currants, as well as in some parts of England. 



The jelly made from these currants is recommended in 

 most complaints of the throat: they are also esteemed 

 cleansing, pellent, and diuretic : an infusion of the roots 

 is useful in fevers of the eruptive kind. 



The inner bark of all the species of the currant-tree, 

 boiled in water, is a popular remedy in jaundice ; and 

 some medical men have recommended it in dropsical 

 complaints. 



The currant-tree that was brought from the isle of Zante, 

 by our Levant traders, and first planted in England in the 



