WILD FLOWERS OF THE BRITISH ISLES 
Tasteless Mountain Currant. (Ribes alpinum, Linn.) — A very similar shrub to the 
Red Currant (Ribes rubrum), but with slightly smaller flowers in erect clusters, the flowers on one 
shrub having no stamens (female), and on another no carpels (male) ; insipid, scarlet berries ; 
2-3 feet high ; and with smaller, more deeply divided leaves. 
Rare. Mountainous woods in the north. April — May. Shrub. 
Black Currant. (Ribes nigrum, Linn.) — Another similar shrub to the Red Currant, 
with the flowers f inch across, bell-shaped, tinged with dull-purple, in many-flowered, drooping 
clusters (racemes) ; the berries black and larger ; and the leaves with more pointed lobes, and 
dotted with glands underneath, which give out a strong perfume when rubbed. 
This shrub is the same as our cultivated Black Currant. 
Not uncommon, though often an escape from cultivation. Damp woods and thickets. April — May. 
Shrub. 
