124 GROSSULARIACEAE (GOOSEBERRY FAMILY) 



GROSSULARIACEAE (Gooseberry Family) 



Shrubs; stems often prickly, sometimes with spines at base of 

 petiole. Leaves alternate, simple, petioled, deciduous, palmately 

 veined, dentate to lobed; stipules none or adnate to the petiole. 

 Flowers bracted, small, regular, on short axillary branches, soli- 

 tary or clustered. Sepals 4-5, distinct or united at base. Petals 

 4-5, small, on the calyx. Stamens 4-5. Ovary inferior; style 

 2-3-lobed. Fruit a berry. Seeds several to many. — Only the 

 following genus. 



RIBES (Gooseberry or Currant) 



(The Arabic name.) The fruits of many are edible. The cultivated 

 gooseberry is R. oxyacanthoides . 



A. Stems not spiny nor prickly; pedicels jointed beneath the ovary, and fruit break- 

 ing off at this point. (currants) 

 B. Flowers yellow. 



C. Calyx segments 5-8 mm. long; calyx tube 2-3 times as long as wide; berry 

 yellow or red or black. E. R. aureum (golden currant) 



CC. Calyx segments 3 mm. long; sepals but very little united at base; berry red. 

 C. E. R. erythrocarpum 



BB. Flowers white or green or red. - 



D. Calyx tube saucer-shaped or almost none. 

 E. Ovary glabrous; berry red, smooth. 



F. Sepals usually somewhat purplish; petals red; anther cells parallel. C. E. 



R. triste (swamp red currant) 

 FF. Sepals and petals yellowish green; anther cells widely divergent. W. E. 

 — Cultivated for the fruit. R. vulgare (garden red currant) 



EE. Ovary hairy or glandular; berry black, hairy or glandular. 



G. Sepals greenish; berry without a bloom. E. R. hudsonlanum 

 GG. Sepals white; berry with a bloom. 



H. Ovary with sessile glands; bracts of the inflorescence widest above their 

 middle; leaves 5-20 cm. wide, 5-7-lobed. W. C. 



R. bracteosum (stink currant) 

 HH. Ovary with stalked glands; bracts of the inflorescence widest below their 

 middle; leaves 5-10 cm. wide, 3-5-lobed. 

 I. Bracts about equaling the pedicels; racemes pendent. W. C. 



R. acerifolium 

 n. Bracts not more than ^ the length of the pedicels; racemes erect or ascend- 

 ing. W. C. R. laziflorum 

 DD. Calyx tube campanulate or cylindric. 

 J. Racemes usually io-20-flowered; sepals red or rose; anthers without an apical 

 gland. 

 K. Leaves white-tomentose beneath; ovary with some curled whitish hairs 

 among the gland hairs; calyx 8-12 mm. or less long. W. C. 



R. sanguineum (red-flowered currant) 



KK. Leaves not tomentose; ovary with gland hairs only; calyx 6 mm. long. 



C. E. R. nevadense (rose-flowered currant) 



