THE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE RED CURRANT. 265 
which has caused some discussion and speculation. Recognizing 
an affinity to the Gooseberry, Bock named it Ribes Grossula, and 
also Grossula transmarina and Groseille d' outre mer. The last two 
names clung for many years^ to the Currant, and are met with in 
later English authors as " Over-seas Gooseberry " and in Holland 
as " Besiekens over zee." Several explanations have been put for- 
ward to account for this curious name, remarkable for the reason 
that in the countries where it was used the Red Currant was a native 
plant. Hedlund suggests that it may have been introduced from 
Scotland to the Continent, and other writers have suggested its trans- 
port to France by the Normans. These theories, however, do not 
explain the curious fact that different countries should have adopted 
identical names, and it seems more likely that an explanation must 
be sought in another direction. In the eighteenth century the Red 
Currant was commonly thought to be the plant which produced the 
dried Currants of the grocer, and many names show this confusion, 
such as Reisons, Corinths, Bastard Corinths, &c. It may therefore be 
that, as the dried Currants came over the sea from the Mediterranean 
shores, the Red Currant was thought also to be a native of the south. 
It is, however, certain that the name Corinth was used for a long period, 
giving rise to the present word Currant. In the " Herbal " of Fuchs ( 7 ) 
so renowned for its wonderful drawings, a good figure of the Red 
Currant is given (see fig. 40) . From the known accuracy of the draughts- 
manship in this work we can safely assume that this gives a very close 
idea of the size of the fruit of those days. It is interesting to note 
that, though cultivated for something like one hundred years, the size 
is not greater than that of wild plants, and also that so far only one 
^variety is recorded. From the flowers it is evident that it is to be 
placed under R. vulgar e. This fact is interesting, as from historical 
reasons we should presume this to be the case. The distribution 
of this species placed it in the tracks of the advance of civilization, 
whereas the more northerly R. rubrum and the mountain-loving 
R. petraeum were introduced into Currant history at a later date. 
The introduction of the Currants into cultivation in England is 
usually placed by historians about the beginning of the seventeenth 
century for two reasons. The word Currant is first found in English 
literature in 1619 in Lyte's translation of Dodoens' "Herbal," and in 
the list of fruits given by Tusser ( 8 ) the word does not occur. 
There is however, I think, no doubt that the " Reisons " found in 
Tusser's list refer to the Red Currant. The confusion with the dried 
Currant has been mentioned above, and furthermore Tusser's fruits 
are all hardy varieties which are planted in the farmhouse garden. 
Grapes are definitely mentioned separately, so it cannot refer to these. 
It would be somewhat remarkable if a fruit which was grown in 
Continental gardens and described in Herbals for two centuries should 
not have reached this country, even were it not a native, and the 
custom of taking wild strawberries from the wood and planting in 
gardens shows that this method of enriching gardens with native 
