39 
Dicotyledons with Polypetalous Flowers. 
Natural Order 
RIBESIACEdL Tab. 31. 
Diagnosis. -- Shrubs with alternate leaves. Flowers small, regular. 
Stamens perigynous, 5 or 4. Ovary inferior, 1-celled with indefinite parietal 
ovules. 
Distribution. —Based upon the solitary genus Currant (Rides), the species of which belong to the 
North Temperate zone of both the Old and New World, and high mountain chains of the Tropics. 
Five species extend north of the Arctic circle, including the Red and Black Currant (R. rubrum and 
R. nigrum). 
One British Genus ; Species, 4. 
Stem sometimes bearing infra-axillary spines, as in Gooseberry ( Ribes Grossularid). 
Petals 4-5, minute, inserted on the calyx. 
FRUIT a berry. 
USES, &c.—To this small Order belong Gooseberry (Ribes Grossularid), of which there are numerous 
cultivated varieties with smooth or bristly, green or red fruit ; Red and White Currants (R. rubrum), indigenous in 
Britain ; and Black Currant (R. nigrum). Several species of Currant, chiefly North American, are grown in 
shrubberies, as the so-called Red Flowering Currant ( R . sanguineum). 
Remarkably different in habit, but agreeing in the inferior ovary with indefinite parietal ovules, is the almost 
exclusively American Natural Order Cactaceze, nearly all the species of which are leafless, very succulent, often 
spinose, with globose, columnar, rope-like, or jointed stems. Their flowers are usually very handsome, rose or pale 
yellow. A number of species are cultivated in our plant-houses, and a species of Indian Fig or Prickly Pear (Opuntia 
vulgaris ) is widely naturalised in countries around the Mediterranean. It is upon this plant and its allies, cultivated 
in Mexico and the Canary Islands, that the Cochineal insect feeds. 
