42 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



ercd, usually drooping, with the raeliis and pedicels glabrous or 

 pubescent, but not glandular. Bracts ovate, shorter than the 

 pedicels. Calyx glabrous or with only a few hairs on the veins ; 

 limb spreading, nearly flat. Berries red, acid. 



Sub-Species I.— Ribes sativum.* 

 Plate DXX. 

 R, rubrum var. sativum, Reich. Fl. Germ. Excurs. p. 5G2. 

 R. rubrum, Sm. Eng. Bot. No. 1289. 



Leaves 2\ to 3^ inches across when mature, deep green, 

 rather flaccid, sparingly hairy when young, glabrous on both sides 

 when mature. Bacemes drooping both in flower and fruit, with 

 the rachis and pedicels glabrous. Calyx pale olive-green, con- 

 colorous. Stamens slightly connivent, the filaments equal to the 

 breadth of the anthers. Young fruit globular. 



In woods and thickets and by the sides of streams. Not 

 uncommon, both in England (especially the Northern counties) 

 and in Scotland ; but probably always the produce of seeds of the 

 garden red currant. 



[England, Scotland, Ireland.] Shrub. Spring. 



A much-branched shrub, 2 to 4 feet high, with the leaves 

 subcordate at the base, the lobes rather short without glands. 

 Bacemes H to 2\ inches long. Blowers \ inch across. Bruit 

 about i inch in diameter, sub-pellucid, red, or varying to ochreous 

 in the garden plant. 



Cultivated Med Currant. 



French, Grosc'dle Commune. German, Rotlie Johannisbeere. 

 Although the Currant-bush is commonly found in woods in the northern parts of 

 our island apparently wild, it is doubtful whether the very early Britons were acquainted 

 with it. In Lyte's translation of Dodoen's Herbal, published in 1578, it is called the 

 " Red beyond the Sea Gooseberry ;" but this is evidently a translation of the old French 

 name Groscille oVoutre Mer, and does not relate to its importation from abroad. In 

 France the Red Currant seems to have been known long before the Gooseberry, and to 

 have been more prized than it is at the present time. Both the Gooseberry and 

 Currant seem to have been improved by careful cultivation in Holland, whence the 

 principal varieties are obtained for all European gardens. Gerarde mentions the Red 

 Currant, also the black and white. He says: "This plant is thought to have been 

 unknown to the antient Greekes ; some thinke it the Ribes of the Arabian Serap.o. 

 However, the shops of late time take it (the faculties consenting thereto) for the true 



* Named "R. rubrum a sativum" on the Plate. 



