FLOWERING CURRANTS. 
Among the many flowering shrubs, and particularly 
the early flowering ones, the several species of Flowering 
The Red-Flowering Currant (R. sanguineum) is much 
more showy in bloom. Its flowers are a deep, rose- 
color, small, like the preceding, but the racemes 
are a little longer, and it blooms about the same 
time. There are many varieties, hybrids, between 
this and R. aureum. The following being considered 
the finest: 
Gordon’s Flowering Currant (R. Gordoni) has both 
crimson and yellow flowers; 
it blooms profusely, and some¬ 
what later than the preceding, 
and is of vigorous growth 
and very graceful habit at 
maturity. 
The Double Crimson (R. san¬ 
guined flora pleno) is a com¬ 
paratively new variety, more 
showy in flower; it is quite 
rare. 
The R. s. glutinosum is a 
Cun-ants are worthy of a prominent 
place in our gardens, and they would 
have if they bore a foreign stamp in¬ 
stead of being indigenous to our own 
country. When we truly appreciate our 
“ wild flowers,” which we only can do 
by making their acquaintance, we shall 
hail this family with delight. 
The several varieties of flowering 
Currants are graceful shrubs of slender 
growth and • small leaves; with less 
weight of foliage than characterizes the 
Lilacs, Syringas and bush Honey¬ 
suckles, but so early in leaf and 
flower, and pleasing in form, that they 
cannot but grow in favor where well 
known. There is a grace in the droop¬ 
ing—almost trailing—habit of the lower 
growth of old bushes when allowed free 
expansion on all sides, that adapts 
them for the borders of groups, or for 
single specimens. 
The Missouri Currant (Ribes Aureum), Fuschia-Flowered 
is the earliest in flower and foliage, 
both appearing together in April, the flowers as the 
leaves are beginning to expand. The blossoms are 
yellow, small, in racemes from one to two inches long, 
and remarkably fragrant. Covering the slender 
branches, bending to the lawn, these early flowers 
mingled with opening leaves have a pretty effect, and 
the shrubs have a pleasing appearance after the flowers 
are gone, because of their delicate, yellowish-green 
glossy foliage. 
variety with pink flowers and 
earliest of all in leaf. The 
Currant. —(Ribes Speciosum ). foliage of all these shrubs 
falls early, but turns to 
brilliant crimson and yellow colors before it falls. 
The Fuchsia-Flowered Currant (R. speciosum), the sub¬ 
ject of our illustration, is, correctly speaking, a goose¬ 
berry, and is a shrub that has long been in cultivation 
in Europe, while it is but little known here. Its shining 
leaves and vivid crimson blossoms, like miniature 
Fuchias, and its smaller size, make it an appropriate 
companion for the other species, and also as a single 
specimen on the lawn. 
