284 HORTICULTURAL MANUAL. 



have known isolated pistillate bushes to load with fruit 

 when no pistillate plant was found in the near vicinity. 

 As yet the plant is mainly used in the East and West for 

 ornamental groups on the lawn or for ornamental hedges. 

 The leaves are silvery on both sides, and when loaded with 

 bright-scarlet fruit, the contrast with the silvery foliage 

 and young branches is very pleasing and attractive. But 

 the most pleasing effect of such plantings is realized when 

 the staminate and pistillate plants are intermingled in 

 groups or hedges. In the dormant period, the sexes can 

 readily be separated, as the fruit-buds differ materially. 

 The pistillate plants have smaller, more slender buds, 

 which are arranged in less compact clusters. The stami- 

 nate plants show relatively large clusters of buds which 

 are decidedly larger in size and more rounded than the 

 pistillate buds. Five minutes given to a study of the buds 

 will enable the novice to separate the seedlings without 

 making a mistake. When grown from seed in nursery 

 row the plants should stand one foot apart and not be used 

 until three years old, when buds will appear and the sex 

 of each plant can be determined. 



The pruning should be confined to pinching or clipping 

 the point of growth extending beyond the line of sym- 

 metry, and to taking out dead wood as it may appear. In 

 the prairie States, an isolated plant with exposed stem 

 always sunburns on the south side. Hence the need of 

 growing in groups or hedges for mutual shelter, a,nd where 

 isolated plants are grown they must be kept in bush form 

 by heading back and allowing suckers to start from the 

 crown. As to the uses of the fruit it is fully equal, if not 

 superior, to the red currant for jelly and marmalade, but 

 it is not equal to the best currants for dessert use, canning, 

 or stewing. But it will thrive and bear loads of fruit in 



