376 BUSH-FRUITS 



The closely related American species, R. Americanum, 

 seems to possess all the good qualities of the European 

 one, and is more ornamental. It might well receive 

 attention from plant breeders. An American species 

 much oftener seen in cultivation is R. aureum, better 

 known as the flowering currant. This, though a black 

 currant, is very different from the two preceding. Its 

 fruit is often large, but produced in few- flowered clusters 

 and ripens singly, so that it must be picked one by one. 

 Its flavor, though peculiar, has not the disagreeable 

 twang of the true black currants, but it lacks the quali- 

 ties necessary to a good culinary fruit. Its most recent 

 boom as a fruit -producing plant has been under the 

 name Crandall. 



Ribes aureum, R. sanguineum, and a hybrid between 

 the two, known as R. Gordonianum, are frequently cul- 

 tivated for ornament, the last two being more beautiful 



but less known than the first. 







HISTORY 



The currant is thought to have been unknown to 

 the Greeks and Romans, as no mention of it is found 

 in any of their writings. It seems to have first come 

 prominently into cultivation about the middle of the 

 sixteenth century, and according to Sturtevant,* re- 

 ceived its modern improved form within fifty years 

 following. The early English names "corans" and 

 "currans" are thought to have been derived from the 

 resemblance of the fruit to the little Corinth grapes or 



*History of the Currant, Trans. Western New York Hort. Soc., 1887: 55. 



