BOTANY OF THE CURRANTS 475 



41. B. VISCOSISSIMUM, Pursh. (Fig. 103.) 



Large, branching bush, 2-6 feet (6-18 decimeters) high, stem 

 and older branches smooth, dark red, young shoots pubescent and 

 viscid-glandular; leaves round-cordate, 1-3 inches (2.5-8 cm.) 

 wide, distinctly 3-5-lobed, lobes roundish, doubly crenate, some- 

 what incised, more or less rugose and veiny, glandular pubescent 

 above and below, emitting a peculiar scent, likened to old apples, 



Fig. 102. Ribes cereum (XI). 



when touched; petioles long; racemes erect, covered with viscid 

 glandular pubescence, which extends to the calyx tube; bracts 

 linear-oblanceolate, entire or slightly incised at tip, as long as the 

 pedicels; pedicels commonly %-% inch (6-12 mm.) long; flowers 

 large, fragrant; calyx yellowish or whitish green, tube broad, 

 campanulate or ventricose, lobes oblong, nearly as long as the 

 tube, spreading but not reflexed ; petals ovate, white, shorter than 

 the calyx lobes; stamens and pistil hidden within the flower; fruit 

 ovoid, black, rough, glandular -hairy or rarely smooth, flavor 

 unpleasant. 



High altitudes of the Rocky and Sierra Nevada Mountains in 

 the northern portion of the United States and southern British 

 America. 



Douglas says* that the berries are so musky or mawkish that 

 two or three will produce vomiting, though it has since been pro- 

 nounced edible. 



* Trans. Lon. Hort. Soc. 7:511. 



