XXIV. THE CURRANT FAMILY. 419 
FAMILY XXIV. THE CURRANT FAMILY. GROSSULA‘CEZ. 
De Canpouie. 
This family includes only one genus, which comprehends the 
Currants and the Gooseberries. ‘They are either spiny or un- 
armed shrubs, natives of the mountains, hills, woods and thick- 
ets of the temperate regions of America, Kurope and Asia, but 
unknown within the tropics, or in any partof Afnca. They 
are found particularly about mountains. Most of the species 
produce agreeable, refreshing, sub-acid fruits. ‘The Black Cur- 
rant, Ribes nigrum, a native of Siberia and northern Europe, is 
cultivated for the pleasant tonic and stimulant properties pos- 
sessed by a jelly made of its ripe fruit. The Red Currant, 
Ribes rubrum, found wild in the mountainous woods of Britain 
and other northern countries of Europe, and in the northern part 
of America, and the White, which is a variety produced from 
this by cultivation, are, in most places, justly valued for their 
uses in cookery, as a dessert, and as affordmg a cooling and 
wholesome drink. The common Gooseberry, £. ura crispa or 
grossuldria, a native of the same regions, but hardly known in 
gardens on the continent of Europe, while the size and richness 
of its fruit are the pride of English, especially Lancashire horti- 
culture, 1s generally but rather unsuccessfully cultivated here 
for its use in tarts and pies, and sometimes asa dessert. ‘The 
Missouri Currant, R. airewm, has been introduced on account 
of the luxuriance of its growth and the beauty and fragrance 
of the flowers; and another from California, AR. speciosum, 
which has been erected into the genus Robsdnia, deserves to 
be introduced. 
Fifty-three distinct species are described by De Candolle :— 
Prodromus, Ill, 477—483; sixty-six in Don’s Gardening, OI, 
177—192; twenty-eight in the FYora of North America, I, 544 
—553, as natives of this country, several of which latter are 
not mentioned by the writers above-named. 
Characters of the Family and of the Genus.—Calyx adher- 
ing to the ovary, bell-shaped or tubular, colored, marcescent, 
