164 THE RIBES FAMILY. 
European form is A. Uva-crispa, Linn., with small smooth fruit, which 
extends to Morocco and the Himalaya. ] ; 
2. R. rubrum, Linn. (fig. 373). Red and White C.—An erect, 
branching shrub, 38 or 4 feet high, without prickles. Leaves on rather 
long stalks, much larger and thinner than those of the Gooseberry, with 
3 or § rather short and broad-toothed lobes, glabrous, or more frequently 
sprinkled with a few minute hairs on the upper surface, and more or less 
downy underneath. Flowers small, greenish-white, several together in 
axillary racemes at the base of the year’s shoots. ‘These racemes are 
either erect or pendulous when in flower, but almost always pendulous 
when in fruit ; the pedicels all short, and do not commence at the very 
base of the raceme, as in R. nigrum, each pedicel being in the axil of 
a small bract. Calyx-segments broadly spreading, obovate, or rounded, 
twice the length of the small petals. Berries red when wild, varying in 
cultivation from red to white. 
In rocky woods, in northern and central Europe and Russian Asia, ex- 
tending to the Arctic Circle, but replaced in southern Hurope and central 
Asia by the 2. petreum. Frequent in Scotland, the north of England, 
and occurs also in some parts of southern England and Ireland, but it 
has been so long and so generally cultivated, that it is difficult to say 
how far it is really indigenous. fl. spring. A variety with more upright 
racemes has been falsely referred to the Continental R. petreum, and 
another with the flowers almost sessile has been distinguished as R, 
spicatum, Robs. | 
3. R. alpinum, Linn. (fig. 374). Mountain C.—Very near R. rubrum, 
but the leaves are smaller, more deeply divided, smooth and shining, 
and glabrous underneath ; the flowers much smaller and always dicecious; 
the males rather numerous, in little, erect racemes, of 1 to 14 inches ; 
the pedicels slender, but not quite so long as the bracts; the females, 
on separate shrubs, much fewer together, in very short racemes, and 
often almost sessile ; the berries small and tasteless. 
In rocky, hilly districts, in central and southern Europe and Russian 
Asia; not an alpine plant, notwithstanding its name, but, said to extend 
to rather high northern latitudes ; it may not, however, always have been 
properly distinguished from 2. rubrum. Rather scarce in Britain, pro- 
bably indigenous in the north of England, but not so in Scotland; it 
does not extend into the Highlands, nor into Ireland. 1. spring. 
4, R. nigrum, Linn. (fig. 375). Black C.—¥asily known from the 
peculiar smell of the leaves when rubbed, arising from the small glan- 
dular dots, copiously sprinkled on the under side. Stem unarmed. 
Leaves. rather larger than in &. rubrum, more cordate, and usually 
with only 3 broad, crenate lobes, coarse and rough, but-scarcely hairy. 
Racemes pendulous, looser than in the R&. rubrum, the flowers larger, 3 
campanulate, on longer pedicels, of which the lowest, arising from the : 
very base of the raceme, are much longer than the others. Calyx s 
rather hoary outside. Berries black. 
In woods, in northern, central, and eastern Hurope, and Russian and 
central Asia, but less common in western Europe than the last two 
species. In Britain, although found in cool, shady places, and boggy 
thickets, in various parts of England and Scotland, yet it is very doubt- 
ful whether it be truly indigenous, as its cultivation dates from a very 
early period. If anywhere wild, it is in the Lake district and Yorkshire. 
Fl. spring. 
