History of the Cultivated Currant 303 



The greatest improvement, however, seems to have been 

 in the low countries. 



All the principal types of the cultivated currants are 

 found in the wild plants, and were reported at an early 

 date. Improvement has only been within a limited 

 range. Culture and fertility often appear to have a greater 

 influence on this fruit than parentage. Thos. Andrew 

 Knight * was of the opinion that by repeated growth 

 from seed the currant would become sweeter, and perhaps 

 in time, even insipid. The majority of seedlings grown 

 by him from white crossed by red currants were red, but 

 many first turned a color similar to the White Dutch, and 

 then became brighter in color when ripe. He expressed 

 himself as surprised at the range of variation which ap- 

 peared, it being much greater than he had expected. 

 Nearly all were mild and sweeter than the red parents, 

 some were insipid, and some even showed a medicinal 

 flavor. Experience does not seem to bear out his expecta- 

 tions in regard to an increasing sweetness, as the newer 

 varieties are many of them more acid than older ones. 



Currant seedlings appear not to vary widely as a rule 

 and show little tendency to reversion, though one writer 

 has reported that seedlings of Fay are generally smaller 

 than the parent and that nearly half of them were white. 

 Perhaps through its long sojourn in the low countries 

 the currant has inherited something of the staid Dutch 

 qualities of the inhabitants, and does not readily depart 

 from long established customs. Yet no fruit, however 

 stable, can long resist the influences of persistent and sys- 

 tematic breeding, and the currant has received too little 

 1 Trans. London Hort. Soc. 3: 86. 



