CHAPTER XIII. 



THE CURRANT, RASPBERRY, GOOSEBERRY, STRAWBERRY, &c. 



§ 1.— THE RED, WHITE, AND BLACK 

 CTJREANT. 



The Black Currant {RibU nigrvm L.) is a native 

 of most parts of Europe, abounding, however, 

 in greatest plenty in the northern parts of 

 Russia, Siberia, &c., and being frequently found in 

 Britain in moist woods, by the sides of swamps, 

 rivers, &c., indicating pretty clearly its predilec- 

 tion for a moist deep soil when in a cultivated 

 state. The red currant {Ribis rubrum L.), and 

 its variety, the white currant (Ribis album L.), 

 are both indigenous to the north of Europe, and 

 are also foimd in woods and hedges in many 

 parts of Britain. The currant does not appear 

 to have been known to the ancient Greeks or 

 Romans. The English name is evidently derived 

 from the similarity of the fruit to the small 

 grapes of Zante, which, dried, form the curanths 

 or currants of the shops. The currant has been 

 long cultivated in this country, and of late years 

 has become greatly improved in size by cultiva- 

 tion. 



The first mention we find made of the currant 

 is by Bacon, who says, " The earliest fruits are 

 strawberries, gooseberries, corans; and after them, 

 early apples and early pears." Worlidge, in his 

 "Vinetum Britannicum," published in 167S, 

 speaks slightly of them : " The English ourmn, 

 once in esteem, but now cast out of all good 

 gardens, as is the black, which was never worth 

 anything. The white curran became native to 

 our soil, which is also improved in some rich 

 moist grounds that it hath gained a higher 

 name of the greatest red Dutch curran. These 

 are the only fruits that are fit to be planted and 

 propagated for wine." Currants are quite un- 

 noticed by Tusser, and Gerard considered them 

 a kind of gooseberry, if we are to understand 

 from the following allusion that he meant them. 

 When describing the gooseberry, "We have 

 also," he says, " in our London gardens another 

 sort, altogether without prickles, whose fruit is 

 very small, lesser by much than the common 

 kind, but of a perfect red colour, wherein it 

 differeth from the rest of its kind;" evidently 

 referring to our red currant. 



To the Dutch we are indebted for the first 

 endeavours to improve this fruit by cultivation; 

 while the French, Germans, and Americans have 

 paid little attention to it. Nor is it to be 



expected that in countries where the grape-vine 

 flourishes, and where the summers are so 

 dry and warm, and as favourable for the vine 

 as unfavourable to the currant, it should be 

 otherwise. The currant, therefore, does not 

 succeed in the middle and southern states. 

 The natural colour of the currant, in an indige- 

 nous state, is red : cultivation has produced the 

 white and pale-coloured varieties. The black 

 currant is of a blackish cast, even in its native 

 wilds, in the woods of the north of Russia, and 

 in medium elevations in Siberia, where the fruit, 

 although very large, is very insipid. Its natural 

 habitat in Britain is by the sides of swamps, or 

 in damp woods, and chiefly in cold strong soils, 

 which accounts for the circumstance of its not 

 succeeding so well in dry exposed gardens as in 

 damp partially shaded borders. 



Langley, in his "Pomona," published 1729, 

 speaks only of red and white Dutch; of the black 

 currant he says nothing. G. Lindley, in " Guide 

 to the Orchard," p. 160, describes six sorts, and 

 very properly remarks, "There are several 

 worthless varieties of the red currant to be 

 found in gardens, which ought to be rooted up, 

 and replaced with the larger fruited." To this 

 circumstance nurserymen should pay attention, 

 and propagate only the best varieties, of which 

 there are now several. It does not appear that, 

 until within these veiy few years, any attempt 

 had been made in procuring new or improved 

 kinds, although so much had been done in this 

 respect in the case of gooseberries ; for we have, 

 time out of mind, heard of no other than the 

 Large red, or Large Dutch, White Dutch, and 

 Champagne, and of one Black currant only. 



Propagation. — By seed, when new varieties 

 are wished for, but this is seldom practised. 

 The seed should be sown in light rich soil as 

 soon as the fruit is completely ripened. The 

 autumn following, the plants vrill be fit for , 

 planting out into nursery lines. The most care- 

 ful experiments made in producing varieties 

 from seed by the indefatigable Mr Knight only 

 yielded five plants — three red and two white — 

 out of two hundred seedlings, possessing greater 

 merits than their parents, and these were scarce- 

 ly worth continuing. Since that time, how- 

 ever, some few superior varieties have been ob- 

 tained, which will be found in the Select List; 

 but how they originated no very satisfactory 



