202 DESCIilPTIONS OF THE SHRUBS 



slightly exserted ; fruit large, to 1 inch, green, yellowish, or 

 red ; cultivated for the edible fruit. Garden or Euhopean 

 Gooseberry (316) — Ribes Grossul^ria. 

 A. Thorns usually single and short ; flowers 1-3 in cluster, greenish 

 or purplish ; berry small, J inch, smooth, reddish purple, edible ; 

 leaves usually tapering at base. Eastern Wild Gooseberry 

 or Round-leaved Gooseberry (317) — Ribes rotundifblium. 

 * Stems without prickles ; flowers and fruit usually in hanging clusters. 

 Currants. (D.) 

 D. Leaves with waxy beads or drops on the lower surface, at least 

 when young ; fruit usually dark brown to black (rarely red). (E.) 

 E. Mowers golden-yellow and spicy-scented, in short, few-flowered 

 clusters, with large leaf-like bracts ; fruit dark brown. 

 Golden or Buffalo Currant (313) — Ribes aireum. 

 E. Flowers greenish white, in 5-10-flowered drooping racemes, 

 ovary pubescent ; fruit black, mawkish ; stems upright. Gar- 

 den or European Black Currant — Ribes nigrum. 



E. Similar to the last, but more spreading and the stems some- 

 what angular; ovary smooth. Wild Black Currant (314) — 

 Ribes flbridum (R. americS,num) . 



D. Leaves without waxy dots on the under side. (F.) 



F. Flowers rose-red, in large, hanging clusters without bracts ; 

 branches red and smooth ; fruit rough, bluish black, dry and 

 bitterish. Eed-flowered Currant (315) — Ribes sanguf il- 

 eum. 



F. Flowers pink, in large clusters ; almost no fruit. Pink-flow- 

 ered Currant — Ribes GordoniS,num. 



F. Flowers greenish white or greenish purple in erect racemes ; 

 fruit red, covered with rough glandular hairs, fetid ; stems 

 trailing and rooting. Skunk or Fetid Currant — Eibes pros- 

 tra,tum. 



HamamSlis. Witch Hazel (319) — Hamamelis virgini^na — is an 

 interesting shrub or small tree, to 25 feet, with thick, oblique wavy- 

 edged, alternate leaves, 4 to 6 inches long. It has long-petaled yellow 

 flowers at any time from August to December. The two-celled, two- 

 seeded, woody capsules are on the shrub through the year, and are 

 especially peculiar in the method and vigor of seed-shooting, which occurs 

 about the time of new bloom. 



There is a Japan Witch Hazel (320) — Hamamelis japdnica — with 

 smaller leaves, 2 to 6 inches long, more prominently veined beneath. 

 In this species the flowers bloom in the spring, February to April, and 

 the fruit has less covering of calyx. The American species has the calyx 



