EIBESIACEiE. 



301 



together. Leaves small, orbicular, pal- 

 mately divided into 3 or 5 crenated lobes, 

 more or less hairy on both sides. Flowers 

 green, hanging singly or in pairs on short 

 pedicels from little tufts of young leaves. 

 Calyx-tube shortly campanulate, the seg- 

 ments oblong, about twice the length of 

 the petals. Berry of the wild plant ra- 

 ther small and yellowish, sprinkled with 

 stiff hairs, but in cultivation var}^ing 

 much in size and colour, and often quite 

 glabrous. 



In thickets, open woods, and hedges, 

 in the rocky parts of central and south- 

 ern Europe, and western Asia. In Bri- 

 tain, well established in many places, in 

 hedges and even wilder places, but 

 scarcely indigenous, having been abun- 

 dantly cultivated in cottage-gardens for 

 several centuries. Fl. early spring. 



Fig. 368. 



2. Currant Kibes. Kibes rubrum, Linn. (Fig. 369.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 1289, and B. jpetrceum, t. 705. Bed and White Currants.) 



An erect, branching shrub, 3 or 4 

 feet high, without prickles. Leaves on 

 rather long stalks, much larger and 

 thinner than those of the Gooseberry B., 

 with 3 or 5 rather short and broad- 

 toothed lobes, glabrous, or more fre- 

 quently sprinkled with a few minute 

 hairs on the upper surface, and more or 

 less downy underneath. Flowers small, 

 greenish- white, several together in axil- 

 lary 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 the 

 black B., 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 

 tivation from red to white. 



Fig. 369. 



in cul- 



