SMALL AND BUSH FRUITS. 



83 



proof, and preserve the fruit well. They, of course, 

 are injurious to the hushes if kept on too long. 



Special and Pot Culture of the Currant. — 



The Bed and White Currant are even hetter adapted 

 for pot or tub culture than the Gooseherry, and do 

 equally well or hetter under this highly artificial 

 treatment. The staying property of the ripe fruit is 

 so great as to enable these fruits to take rank among 

 ornamental berried plants. The Gooseberries cannot 

 be made to hang much more than a month or six 

 weeks on the bushes after they are ripe ; but the 

 Currants will hang, as we have already seen, several 

 months. The foliage is also highly ornamental 

 through all its stages. Black Currants are hardly 

 so showy, nor so permanent, though many plants 

 grown for ornament only are not more imposing 

 or beautiful than a well-formed bush of, say, Lee's 

 Prolific, bending under its heavy load of jet-black 

 berries until it almost hides the pot. 



The Currant will also live and thrive in trying 

 positions in which even Gooseberries will barely 

 succeed. In the small jack-towel gardens in towns, 

 in yards, on roofs and balconies, the Currant can 

 battle better with the dust and the smuts than the 

 Gooseberry ; and for this simple reason — the leaves 

 and fruit are smooth. Impurity does not stick to 

 Currants as to Gooseberries, and what does adhere to 

 them is far more easily washed off. 



The Red Currant especially is almost worth 

 growing on balcony or dwelling-house for its highly 

 ornamental qualities alone. If less glaring, it is also 

 more graceful than the Pyracanthus at its best, while 

 it throws the Cotoneaster into the shade at its 

 brightest. 



But the Currants also yield capital crops of good 

 edible fruit in pots under similar treatment to 

 that recommended for Gooseberries, and tens of 

 thousands who can never hope to sit under their 

 own Vine and Fig trees, may at least have the 

 pleasure of growing their own Currants in the 

 smallest possible gardens or in pots, and of eating 

 their fruit off the bushes. Those who have many 

 yards or acres of ground, well furnished with fruit- 

 trees and bushes of various sorts, can form no idea 

 of the pleasure which a few fruitful Currant-bushes 

 in pots can afford. 



All that is needful to command success, is to 

 secure nice young bushes to start with ; pot up in 

 October or November in ten or twelve - inch pots ; 

 protect the roots from frost and drought with a 

 porous non-conducting mulch ; see that the roots 

 never suffer for lack of food or water, or from 

 excess of heat or cold ; beware of over-cropping, and 

 keep leaves, branches, and fruit as clean as frequent 

 syringing can make them. 



Any and every possible mode of training may be 

 adopted with success. But for training along low 

 walls or the fronts of balconies, there are no better 

 forms than some of the many - shaped cordons. 

 While for artistic effects along verandahs, balconies, 

 kitchen or flower garden walks, standards from three 

 to four feet high are the most striking. These laden 

 with healthy foliage, and bunched all over with 

 coral, are far more satisfactory as ornaments than 

 not a few of the shivering and shrivelling-up Myrtles, 

 Orange-trees, Pomegranates, and Oleanders, that one 

 so often meets with in such prominent positions. 



Currant-trees also introduce a useful variety into 

 orchard or other glass houses, and will even bear 

 gentle forcing without the risk of fruit dropping, 

 which not seldom clears off most or all of the fruit 

 from Gooseberry -bushes under like conditions ; the 

 Black Currant, however, is more impatient of heat 

 and a confined atmosphere than either the Red or 

 the White. The Currant will bear a temperature 

 under glass of from 55° to 65°, not only with impu- 

 nity, but to the improvement of its flavour. But un- 

 less it is a special favourite, the forcing of the Currant 

 is not recommended ; those who have space to spare 

 had better fill it with the choicest Apples, Pears, 

 Plums, or Figs. 



Varieties of the Currant.— Fortunately for 

 those who have to- perform the mostly thankless 

 office of selection, these are by no means numerous. 



Cultivators and hybridists do not seem to have 

 done much among the Currants, and hence the old 

 varieties hold their ground ; though the success of 

 Mr. Lee, of Clifton, with his Prolific Black, shows 

 how much can be done in these directions. Neither 

 are our White or Red Currants, in all probability, 

 anything like so large and so sweet as they may 

 yet become. 



Select List of Ccreaxts. 



Black Naples — fruit large 

 and good, flavour mild and 

 sweet. 



Cherry Currant— fruit very 

 large, deep red ; a valu- 

 able early variety. 



La Fertile— fruit large ; a 

 fine red kind, and a great 

 bearer. 



Lee's Prolific Black— fruit 

 very large and richly fla- 

 voured, and very prolific ; 

 best of the black kinds. 



Mammoth — fruit large and 

 fine ; a good red kind. 



Raby Castle— fruit medium 

 size, bright red ; an ex- 

 cellent late kind. 



Warner's Grape — fruit 

 large, red, long-bunched; 

 fine for exhibition. 



"White Dutch — Fruit me- 

 dium size, small and well- 

 flavoured ; a good dessert 

 kind, and keeps well if 

 protected. 



"White Dutch Cut-leaved— 

 fruit large, long buncbes • 

 a fine dessert kind. 



To these may be added the Champion Black, 

 already noted ; Knight's Sweet Red ; Wilmot's Long- 

 branched Red, bunches six inches in length, berries 

 large, and of a deep red colour ; Red Dutch, a good 

 companion to the White Dutch; and Wilmot's Large 

 White. 



