236 



GROSSULARIACEAE. 



Vol. II. 



conic, consisting of numerous small heads, greenish ; fertile heads long-peduncled, at length 

 drooping, borne near the base of the sterile; head of fruit about I'-ii' in diameter, the fertile 

 seeds few, with numerous minute sterile ones. 



In low woods, Connecticut and southern New York to Florida, Illinois, Missouri and Mexico. 

 Wood hard, not strong, reddish brown ; weight per cubic foot 37 lbs. Leaves fragrant when bruised, 

 brilliant in autumn. Its gum, copal-balsam or copalin, used as a substitute for storax. Satin- 

 walnut. Opossum-tree. Bilsted. Alligator-tree. White-gum. Liquidamber. April-May. 



Family 52. GROSSULARIACEAE Dumort. Anal. Fam. 37. 1829. 



Gooseberry Family. 



Shrubs, with alternate often fascicled usually lobed petioled leaves, and race- 

 mose or subsolitar)' regular flowers, the pedicels mostly bracteolate. Calyx-tube 

 (hypanthium) ovoid, cylindric or hemispheric, adnate to the ovary, the limb 

 4-5-lobed, often colored. Petals 4 or 5, inserted on the throat of the calyx, small, 

 scale-like, often included. Stamens 4 or 5, inserted with the petals, included or 

 exserted. Ovary inferior, i-celled; styles 2, distinct or united; ovules few or 

 numerous. Berry globose or ovoid, pulpy, the cah'x persistent on its summit. 

 Seeds horizontal, obscurely angled, their outer coat gelatinous, the inner crusta- 

 ceous. Embryo small, terete, in fleshy endosperm. 



Two genera and about 120 species, widely distributed. Currantworts. 

 Pedicels jointed beneath the ovary; fruit disarticulating from the pedicels; plants without nodal 



spmcs. 

 Pedicels not jointed ; fruit not disarticulating from the pedicels ; 



Ribes. 

 plants with nodal spines. 



2. Grossularia. 



I. RIBES L. Sp. PI. 201. 1753. 



Shrubs, mostly unarmed, a few species bristly. Leaves palmately veined, usually lobed. 

 Racemes several-many-flowered; pedicels jointed beneath the ovary, usually with a pair of 

 bractlets just below the joint. Ovary not spiny. Fruit disarticulating from its pedicel. [The 



About 65 species, natives of the north temperate zone, Mexico and the Andes of South America. 

 Besides the following, some 25 others occur in western North America. Type : Ribes rubrum L. 



I, R. lacustre. 



Stems bristly and spiny. 

 Stems unarmed. 



Ovary with sessile glands. 



Ovary without glands, or with stalked glands. 

 Calyx-tube (hypanthium) obsolete. 

 Ovary glabrous. 



Petals yellowish-green. 

 Petals red. 

 Ovary with stalked glands. 

 Calyx-tube (hypanthium) evident. 



Calyx-tube greenish to yellowish-white. 



Racemes very short ; leaf-lobes rounded ; fruit red. 

 Racemes long, drooping ; leaf-lobes acutish ; fruit black. 

 Calyx-tube bright yellow. 



2, R. hudsonianum. 



R. vidgare, 



R. triste. 



R. glandulosum 



R. inebrians. 

 R, americanum. 

 R. odoratum. 



I. Ribes lacustre (Pers.) Poir. 

 Swamp Gooseberry. Fig. 2197. 



Ribes oxyacanthoides var. lacustre Pers. Syn. 



I : 252. 1805. 

 Ribes lacustre Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl. 2 : 



856. 1811. 



Spines slender, weak, generally clustered. 

 Branches usually densely bristly; petioles 

 slender, more or less pubescent; leaves 

 nearly orbicular, thin, glabrous or nearly so, 

 deeply S-7-lobed, i'-7' wide, the lobes obtuse 

 or acutish, incised-dentate; flowers race- 

 mose, green or purplish, about 2" long; 

 pedicels slender, bracted at the base, about 

 2" long; calyx-tube short, its lobes short, 

 broad, spreading; stamens very short, not 

 exserted; berry 2"-^" in diameter, reddish, 

 covered with weak gland-tipped bristles. 



In swamps and wet woods, Newfoundland 

 to Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, 

 Michigan, Alaska and California. May-June. 



