STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 



SMALL SWAMP GOOSEBERRY Ribes lacustre (Poir.). 



Very pretty in flower, but very bristly, and the fruit small, 

 not larger than peas, in slender racemes, of a purplish color 

 and unpleasant flavor. The blossoms are pink and hang in 

 graceful bunches on the weak and very prickly branches. 

 This small bristly species resembles the 



TRAILING HAIRY CURRANT Ribes prostratum (L'Her.). 



This is the least desirable of the Currant family, being far 

 from wholesome. The whole plant is weak and reclining on 

 the ground, often rooting from the joints. The leaves are 

 rather large, smooth and five-to-seven lobed. The small 

 round very pale red berries are hairy, glandular, and of a 

 very unpleasant taste and odor. I have known persons 

 made very ill by eating tarts made of the Hairy Currants. 

 It is easily distinguished by its trailing habit and hairy 

 berries and erect racemes of flowers. I have found it chiefly 

 growing in low lands and thickets, near swamps. 



A larger bush, and of common occurrence in swampy 

 ground, is the 



WILD BLACK CURRANT R. floridum (L.). 

 When in blossom this Wild Black Currant is an orna- 

 mental object. The flowers, of a pale greenish-yellow, are 

 larger than the common garden species, and droop in long 

 graceful flowery racemes from the branches. The leaves are 

 of a grayish-green, sharply lobed ; the bark gray and smooth ; 

 berries very dark red, deepening when ripe to blackish- 

 purple; they are large and somewhat pear-shaped, in flavor 

 not unlike the garden fruit. I should think it possessed of 

 a narcotic quality ; certainly it is not very agreeable, though 

 some people like it, and it is extensively used as a preserve. 

 The bush takes kindly to cultivation but is, I think, more 

 ornamental than useful. 



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