CLASS V. ORDER I.] RIBES. 327 



English Botany, t. 704.— English Flora, vol. i. p. 333.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 121. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 106. 



A small branched shnib, from two to three feet high, with a pale 

 smooth shining loose cuticle cracking and curling up, much branched 

 and leafy. Leaves alternate, scattered over with hairs, on' channeled 

 hairy footstalks, of three or five lobes, green above, pale and shining 

 beneath, with three or five ribs and a few slender lateral veins, the 

 margins ciliated, coarsely and doubly serrated. Inflorescence axillary. 

 Racemes erect both in flower and in fruit, more or less profusely 

 scattered over with short hairs, terminating in a rather large round 

 dark gland, some of the racemes large, with numerous flowers bearing 

 stamens only in a perfect state, others with a few flowers ihat are 

 perfect, partial footstalks, short from the axis, of a lanceolate mem- 

 branous bractea, longer than the flower, having a mid-rib, and the 

 margin fringed with glandular hairs. Calyx plain, of five broad 

 obtuse or acute segments, three ribbed petals very short, obtuse, 

 fixed into the tube of the calyx between the segments of the calyx. 

 Stamens with short filaments, and two oblong anthers. Style short, 

 with an obtuse .notched stigma. Berry small, red, globose, smooth, 

 crowned by the withered flosver, having an insipid taste. 



Habitat. — Woods and fissures of shady rocks ; in the North of 

 England and Scotland ; about Bradford and Ripon, Yorkshire ; Bux- 

 ton, Derbyshire; Cadzow Castle, near Hamilton, and Bothwell Castle, 

 Scotland. 



Shrub ; flowering in May. 



This is readily distinguished by its shining leaves and long lanceolate 

 bracteas. Upon the cuticle of this, as may also be observed upon 

 other species of Ribes, are minute black spots, which, upon examina- 

 tion with a strong lens, will be found to be a kind of Fungus, the 

 Dothidea, ribesia, Pers. 



5. R. ni'grum, Linn. (Fig. 397.) black Currant. Racemes downy, 

 pendulous, of few flowers, with a separate one at the base ; flowers 

 bell-shaped ; calyx scattered over with glands; the segments obtuse, 

 recurved; leaves dotted with glands on the under side. 



English Botany, t. 1291.— English Flora, vol. i. p.333— Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 123. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 107. 



A shrub about three feet high, more spreading, and less branched 

 than R. riibrum. Leaves alternate, large, on channeled footstalks, 

 three or five lobed, coarsely and sometimes doubly serrated, smooth 

 above, paler beneath, and scattered over with glandular dots, which 

 exhale a peculiar odour, the ribs and veins strong and prominent be- 

 neath. Inflorescence a pendulous raceme, of few green flowers, having 

 an odd one at the base, the stalk downy, the partial footstalks long, 

 from the axis of a small lanceolate bractea. Calyx bell-shaped, the 



