RPBES LAUCUSTRE. 
LAKE-SIDE CURRANT. 
Class. Order. 
PENTANDRIA. MONOGYNIA, 
Natural Order. 
GROSSULACE^. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Habit. 
Introduced 
N. America 
2 feet. 
April, May. 
Shrub. 
in 1827. 
No. 954. 
Ribes brings to mind that period of our history 
when botanists studied plants only for their medi- 
cinal qualities. It was the name of an acid herb. 
Of the various ornamental species of Ribes little 
was known in England before 1824, in which year 
Douglas was sent out by the London Horticultural 
Society to North America, to collect plants for that 
establishment. Although the lamented death of 
this energetic botanical collector occurred when he 
had been employed in this capacity but about 
eight years, he introduced to England upwards of 
two hundred species of ornamental ligneous and 
herbaceous plants ; including amongst them twen- 
ty-four Lupines and fourteen Currants, of which 
the species here figured is one. 
The plant of which we now give an engraving is, 
we believe, the Ribes echinatum of Douglas, but it 
bears no well-marked specific distinction from 
lacustre, although its trailing habit gives it a 
very different appearance in growth. It is a free 
flowering shrub, intermediate between the Goose- 
berry and Currant; and may be propagated by 
layers of the young wood. 
