CURRANT-TREE. RIBES. 



In Botany, a Genus of the Pentandria 

 Monogynia Class. 



THIS agreeable and wholesome fruit is un- 

 doubtedly a native of our country : it was 

 formerly found growing in the wild state, in 

 woods and hedges in Yorkshire, Durham, 

 and Westmorland, as well as on the banks of 

 the Tay and other parts of Scotland. 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 describing 

 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 their language has no appropriate 



