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RIBES SANGUINEUM FLORE PLENO. 
It appears that the merit of putting cultivators in possession of this valuable 
addition to our hardy spring-flowering shrubs is due to Mr. David Dick, gardener 
to the Right Honourable the Earl of Selkirk, at St. Mary's Isle, Kircudbright, 
who discovered it in a collection of seedlings raised in the Isle Garden. Mr. M'Nab 
has favoured us with the annexed remarks on its origin, taken from a letter 
addressed to him by Mr. Dick, last April : — 
" The seed I have no doubt was ripened in the Isle Garden, where they fruit 
abundantly, and was sown by some one of my predecessors. When I came here, 
I found about one hundred seedling plants standing close together, none appearing 
to have flowered. During 1839 I had them planted out, and, on their flowering, 
the double variety was detected. I did not observe any approach to a double 
flower on any other individual of that stock ; nor even the least tendency to a 
multiplication of parts on any of the numerous seedlings since raised. Amongst 
those obtained at the same time with the double one, several distinct shades 
occur ; many have also a tendency to produce larger racemes than the original 
species. I have generally found the double variety three weeks later in flowering 
than the common varieties cultivated here." 
Blooming as it does at the very time when flowers are so much wanted, 
especially in metropolitan gardens, and the parent species being so well known, it 
needs no eulogium of ours to gain it a favourable reception : every one can imagine 
how much more showy the double flower must be than the single. To the list of 
forcing flowers, it will also be an addition of some importance. 
