THE GOOSEUEUHY THIBE. 17 



in New Albion to adorn the gardens of even English 

 cottagers. 



There is something in the organisation of these 

 flowers particularly simple and pretty. Take the 

 Common Gooseberry, for example {Plate XXVII. 1.). 

 The spines with which the stem of this plant is de- 

 fended, are of the same nature as those of the Barberry, 

 that is to say they are rigid leaves, without the soft 

 green pulpy substance, or parenchyma, that usually 

 connects their veins. In the true leaves there is no- 

 thing to remark upon, further than that they are 

 somewhat 3-lobed, and bluntly toothed along their 

 margin ; their stalks, however, are beautiful objects if 

 examined by a microscope, because of the delicate 

 border of half-transparent hair-like fringes, which, when 

 magnified, look like the most brilliant needle-shaped 

 crystals. The flowers are little gi'een cups, purple in 

 the inside, and grow in pairs, or singly, from among the 

 leaves, which overshadow and protect them so com- 

 pletelv that when a bush is in full flower you may pass 

 it and hardly remark the blossoms. The cup (fg. 

 2.), green without and purple within, is the calyx ; 

 its border is divided into 5 blunt lobes, which are 

 turned downwards. At the mouth of the cup you will 

 find 5 tiny whitish scales, ha\dng each a short stalk 

 with a tuft of hairs at its base (fy. 3. a.) ; these are 

 petals. Between the petals are the stamens : 5 upright 

 filaments, with an oval anther at the point, and a tuft 

 of hairs at its base (Jiy. 3.). In the centre of all this 

 apparatus rise two green threads, covered with long 

 hairs at the base, but naked and terminated by a small 



VOL. II. - c 



