266 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
fruits was not unknown. In the " Commentaries " of Matthiolus ( 9 ) 
a good description is given of the Red Currant of the day, and it merits 
translation as establishing two interesting points :■■ — 
" Ribes vulgaris. Ribettes or Over the Sea Raisons. German, 
St. Johans Treublin. We deal here with this plant, unknown, as 
I believe, to the ancients, which is falsely called the Ribes of the Arabs. 
This plant produces strong branches and throws a leaf like that of 
the Vine or Poplar. 
" Its branches are supple and pliable, and from them depends 
a small round fruit in grape-like bunches, like that of the Berberis 
(Berberis vulgaris) . It is as large as a pepper (gros comme poyvre) and 
very red when it is ripe, having a sweet and acid taste. It flowers 
in May, having flowers yellowish white, rayed like a star. This plant 
is common in gardens and is used for edgings (cloysons) to enclose 
the parterres of the garden." 
This description establishes the fact that cultivation so far had 
not increased the size of the fruit, and also that the flower is 
undoubtedly R. vulgar e. It is evident, therefore, that the Currant of 
the gardens of those days is a pure R. vulgare, and that crossings with 
other species had not yet taken place. In other works of about the 
same time R. vulgare can be distinguished by its- pendulous and 
characteristic flowers. 
Camerarius ( 10 ) recommends the sowing of seed from the wild 
plants, and this is interesting as opening the way for the introduction 
of natural hybrids into garden culture. 
We now come to an important period in Currant history, namely 
the introduction of R. petraeum into garden cultivation. The date of 
this is established with some accuracy by the encyclopaedic Konrad 
Gesner, who describes that in 1561 he found a Currant growing in 
the woods around Berne, which was locally known as Reechbeere. 
This he was especially pleased to introduce into his garden, as the 
fruits were larger than the ordinary variety of those days. From the 
description of the leaf and fruit it is quite clear that this plant was 
R. petraeum, and it is a significant fact that only a few years after 
we find the first notice of new varieties with larger fruit. In 1576 
a mention is made in Lobel's " Stirpium " ( u ) of a sweet variety and 
varieties with larger berries than usual, and in the " Hortus Medicus " 
of Camerarius ( 10 ) we meet two varieties, the old Red and a variety 
" baccis rubris majoribus " from the garden of Frederich, Archduke of 
Austria. From the description of the latter it is evidently R. petraeum, 
which is now becoming distributed in gardens. It is very interesting 
to note the unanimity with which all writers of the period remark 
upon the large size of this new variety and its sudden appearance. 
Its introduction into this country would seem to be somewhere about 
1620. In the first edition of Gerard's " Herbal " ( 12 ) no Currants 
are definitely mentioned, but under the " Gooseberry " the following 
occurs : 
" We have also in London Gardens another sort altogether without 
