ISOTANIC'AL INDEX. 
S2 
of Itibes rubrum, Linn., from the north of Europe, but the same species, according to 
the generally accepted classification of botanists, also inhabit the northern portion 
of America, others, however, consider Bibes rubrum, of Europe, and its American 
prototype, Itibes albinervium, Miehx., specifically distinct, but as there is so very lit- 
tle difference it seems hardly worth while to keep them separate. The special points 
of difference lie in the fact that in the latter form, the veins of the leaves are whit- 
ish underneath, and each berry of the bunch of fruit seems to turn up and assume 
a very unnatural position on the drooping raceme. In studying the varieties with 
black fruit we also find a native variety, It. floridum, so strongly resembling an Euro- 
pean species, It. nigrum, that, perhaps, one specific name would reasonably answer 
for both forms. At least the resemblance is so strong that it is often remarked. 
Few of our native species have been improved to any extent, and, perhaps, we 
may assign as the most probable reason that the foreign ones had already reached 
such a high point of perfection, at least a century ago, that the attempt seemed use- 
less. There are, however, several worthy sorts from the native -dock of real com- 
mercial value, but as we already have such splendid and complete manuals on the 
Currant from the able pens of Downing, Elliott, Hooper, Barry and Fuller, that it 
would be superfluous for us to enter into anything like an elaborate description of 
the varieties in cultivation, add to this the fact of the native species being so care- 
fully worked up and described in Prof. Gray’s and Woods’ Botanies, all our readers 
are very likely to be quite familiar with them. 
The popular name Currant, as applied by the English speaking people to this 
fruit, is derived from the word Corinths or Corrans, which was applied to the small 
Zante Grape, of Greece, and which, in its dried state, at the shops so closely resem- 
ble in form and flavor the dried Currants. All nations, however, have a popular and 
distinct name for it, and the Latin (scientific) name Itibes is only a modification of 
the Danish name Ilibs. The Hollanders were the first to improve the fruit of the 
Currant, and their old varieties, Red Dutch and White Dutch, are still standard 
varieties, although some of the newer French,. English or American varieties are a 
little ‘more attractive. They are very easily ' propagated by simply cutting oil' a 
branch of ripe wood of the past season’s growth, any time after the leaf has ma- 
tured, in the fall, and until the plants commence to grow in the spring, and plant- 
ing it upright in the ground about 4 inches deep, with the growing end about an 
inch above the surface of the ground. The fruit of the red varieties are borne on 
the wood, 2 or more years old, but on the black fruited varieties the fruit is produced 
on the 1 year old wood. The bushes will live to a great age and fruit quite freely if 
the diseased and superfluous wood is kept cut away, but when they show signs of 
disease or rust they should be immediately dug up and burned. Being so very hardy 
it follows, as a rule, that they should be grown in a cool place, and are found to suc- 
ceed well when partly shaded ; but they should never be planted where they will re- 
ceive the drippings of trees, for in fact, no plant or shrub ever grows satisfactorily 
that is so situated. 
The garden varieties of the Currant are legions, but when carefully compared, 
are found to be reduced to a very few distinct foreign varieties, while those produced 
in America are, still less. Among the American productions of merit are : Buist’s 
Long Bunch Red, Dana’s White, and from the native black ones are: the Desert and 
Golden, varieties of It. uureum, and the Missouri sweet fruited, a variety of It. flori- 
dum. Nearly all large and prosperous nurseries keep many.other varieties, which 
soon merge into some of the original species or older varieties. 
Although the fruit of It. aureum is not desirable to eat, or at least requires culti- 
vated taste to admire it, the plant is one of choicest ornamental shrubs, producing in 
early spring their clusters of long, tubular shaped yellow flowers, Fig. 208, that 
scent the air with their spicy, clove-like fragrance. Being a native shrub, of course 
it is not as desirable as many introduced, but inferior things. Another species, It. 
sanguineum, with its numerous varieties, comes from Oregon, and furnishes a blue 
fruit, more or less insipid or tasteless, but is another beauty on the lawn. The flow- 
ers are produced in great profusion in a long raceme, of a deep, rich, rose-red color, 
the racemes usually twice as long as the leaves, the calyx has a long bell-shaped 
richly colored tube, with blunt spreading segments, much larger than the small 
pale-colored petals. In its native habitat it grows only about two or three feet high, 
but under cultivation it often reaches as much as eight feet in height, and forms one 
of the most attractive objects on the lawn. 
An Historic Orange Tree. — The famous orange tree at Cassel, which was rid- 
dled with bullets by the Cossacks on September 30, 1813, has at last died. The 
Jlessische Morgenzeitung writes that even last year the tree bore new leaves and new 
blossoms. 
