446 ORDER GROSSULARLE, OR GOOSEBERRY TRIBE. 



indentations, which show it to consist of five sepals. At its 

 mouth are five small scales, which are the petals ; and between 



these are the stamens, which 

 are also five in number. In 

 the centre of these will be 

 seen a single style, cleft at 

 the top into two small 

 stigmas ; and these arise 

 from an ovary which is si- 



OP GKOS- tuated below the calyx? . m _ 



bedded, as it were, in the 



flower-stalk, very much as in the Cacteae. The ovary is one- 

 celled, and contains a considerable number of ovules, arranged 

 upon two parietal placenta?. "When the flower has withered, 

 the ovary swells, and becomes filled with a pulpy substance 

 which surrounds the seeds ; it is by the remains of the calyx, 

 that what is known as the eye of the gooseberry is formed. If 

 a ripe Gooseberry be divided into two parts from its point to 

 its base, the position of the seeds, and their attachment by 

 threads to its walls, will be seen to correspond with what has 

 been said of the structure of the ovarium. 



614. The description just given of the flower of the common 

 Gooseberry is not entirely applicable to every species ; for in 

 some the petals are entirely absent ; and in others, the calyx is 

 brilliantly coloured, as in the Fuchsia. Currants, as well as 

 Gooseberries, belong to this order ; indeed, the botanical differ- 

 ence between the two is extremely slight. These fruits only 

 attain their true perfection in temperate climates ; and it is pro- 

 bable that they are nowhere produced of equal size and flavour 

 to those which are raised in Britain. It is not uncommon for 

 them to attain the weight of from an ounce to an ounce and a 

 half. In Spain and Italy, the heat of the summers is too great 

 for the due development of the fruit ; these plants not being pro- 

 vided, like the Cactus tribe, with the means of resisting it. All 

 the different kinds of Gooseberry are varieties of one species ; 

 and the same may be said of the Red and White Currant ; but 

 the Black Currant is a distinct species, of which no varieties 



