218 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



Duane's Purple, Prunug Americana, all the rarie- 



Elfrey, ties, 



English Yellow Gage, Primus Pubescens, 



Huling's Superb, Prunus Maritima, 



Imperial Violet, Red St. Martin, 



Imperial Ottoman, Tomlinson's Charlotte, 



Italian Prune, Washington. 



The following varieties are the least affected hy attacks of the curcidio 

 on the fruity yet they frequently suffer a partial loss: 



Guthrie's Apricot Plum, Imperial Gage, 



Italian Prune, Small Drap d'Or. 



THE FAMILY OP CURRANTS. 



The edible currants, cultivated in Europe and America, comprise four 

 species, and more than fifty varieties. The species are 



Europeaii. — Ribes Rubrum, Ribes Nigrum. 



American. — Ribes Floridum, Ribes Missouriensis or Aureum. 



About thirty-five years ago Thomas A. Knight, President of the Horti- 

 cultural Society of London, grew several seedling varieties of the Ribes 

 rubrum, whieh were announced in the catalogue of that society as 



Knight's Early Red, Knight's Large Red. 



Knight's Sweet Red, 



These are the only new varieties, and with ten other varieties of Ribes 

 rubrum, and six varieties of Ribes nigrum and one of Ribes petraeum, now 

 no longer cultivated, comprise the entire number enumerated in the third 

 edition of their catalogue, published in 1842, more than twenty years after 

 the establishment of that society, aided by an immense capital to advance 

 its objects. 



The three varieties presented little if any advancement, they being all 

 very similar to the old Red Dutch, and this lack of progress arose from the 

 fatuity that Mr. Knight and the society had remained quite ignorant of the 

 existence in France of very superior varieties, which he should have availed 

 himself of when commencing his operations. Even up to the present period, 

 being twenty-seven years additional, but one new variety has been pro- 

 duced in England, the Victoria, and this was an accidental seedling. 



In France the results have been very different. The French people sur- 

 pass all other European nations in the seminal production of new and esti- 

 mable varieties of fruits, and are only equalled in the production of new 

 and rare flowers by the Chinese and Japanese. 



They have originated the following estimable currants : 



Red Gondoin, Blanche Perlee or Pearly Currant, 



White Gondoin, Blanche Transparente, or White 



Cerise or Cherry, Transparent, 



Hative de Bertin, White Provence, 



Fertile de Paluan, Red Provence. 



