270 TREATISE ON FRUIT TREES. 



USES. 



Currants are eaten fresh, either with sugar, or without it after extreme ripeness has 

 sweetened them. Desserts are decorated with whole bunches of them glazed with sugar. 

 They're preserved as currants, as jelly, and in pastries, preserves, or compotes. Syrups, 

 refreshing drinks, &c. are prepared from them. Cherry preserves are seasoned with 

 currants, & currant preserves are sweetened with raspberries. 



To maintain currants until November, the bushes are covered with straw as soon 

 as the fruit is nearly ripe to protect it from being raided by birds & dried out by the sun. 



II. Cultivated thorny GOOSEBERRY BUSK C. B. P. 



Thorny GOOSEBERRY BUSH. (PL II.) 



[Translator's note: now Ribes grossularia or Ribes uva-crispa.] 



Although the habit & the whole external appearance of the gooseberry bush seem 

 to be very different from that of the cluster currant bush, nevertheless all of its 

 characteristics are the same. Each of its parts is distinguishable from those of the cluster 

 currant bush only by its dimensions. It doesn't grow on a single stem, but instead a large 

 number of shoots, most of which branch out further, emerge from its base & form an 

 extremely full bush where the strongest shoots are about three feet tall. 



1°. The shoots are straight, much less thick, and are covered similarly by a pearl- 

 gray or almost white epidermis. Underneath it there are the same number of bark layers 

 with the same orientations & consistencies & with somewhat lighter colors. 



2°. The leaves also are arranged alternately on the shoot. They're simple and are 

 divided into three principal lobes. 



