0307 



CURRANT BUSH 



Family: NOPALEES. [Translator's note: now in family Saxifragaceae]. 

 Reproductive system: PENTANDRY, MONOGYNY. 



The Alpine currant bush, Ribes alpinum, LINN., exhibits a peculiarity that has 

 deceived several botanists. Its flowers sometimes are entirely male or female. In other 

 individuals, like the one that I used for the attached figure, they're entirely 

 hermaphroditic. This variation in sexual organs led shortsighted observers to invent 

 different species for the same plant. 



The Alpine currant bush grows four or five feet high. Its stems are covered with a 

 whitish bark. The leaves are small, smooth, petiolate, with three lobes, dentate margins, 

 bright green above, and pale green underneath. The flowers form upright clusters and 

 have long, pointed bracts. The calyx has five colored sections. The corolla is made up of 

 five petals that alternate with the sections of the calyx. The five stamens are opposite the 

 petals. The ovary is adherent and is crowned by a bifurcate style. The fruit is a berry with 

 one compartment and several seeds. 



FLOWERS: in April and May. 



RANGE: in hedgerows in mountainous country at the foot of the Alps, the Jura, 

 and the Vosges, in the Cevennes, and in the vicinity of Bareges [Translator's note: 

 Cevennes: a mountainous region in south central France. Bareges is a village in the 

 Pyrenees near Lourdes]. 



NOMENCLATURE. German, die wilde johannisbeere, alpen johannisbeere, 

 folkbeere. Dutch, bergbessen. Danish, fieldribs. English, tasteless mountain currants. 

 Russian, gluchaja smorodina. 



USES. The fruit is as sweet and refreshing as that of 



