146 
RIBES. 
his gardener, Mr. David Dick, at St. Mary’s Isle, Kirkcudbright, 
is due the merit of originating and distributing this valuable 
hardy shrub. Its racemes of flowers are rather larger than 
those of its parent, and they are produced three weeks later in 
the season. The ease and rapidity with which all these plants 
may be propagated will soon render it plentiful, and we may 
then expect to see it superseding the single-flowering kind. 
It is only necessary to take cuttings of the preceding summer’s 
wood, any time between the fall of the leaf and spring, and, 
cutting them to about a foot in length, insert them in the ground 
in any shaded situation, to insure almost as many plants as there 
are pieces. In two years they make blooming plants, and may 
then be transferred to their respective destinations. As before 
remarked, they are by no means particular in the choice of soil 
or station, though, like all vegetation, they will thrive better in 
a good position than its opposite; rich, friable loam suits them 
best, and without doubt this beautiful variety is worthy of such 
a place as will promise it the opportunity of free development. 
The second subject of our plate, if it be not so showy as its 
fellow, is certainly worth a place by its side, were it only for the 
contrast thus afforded, and for the same reason should be in¬ 
cluded in the garden. Groups of these plants have a good effect, 
and some or other of them continue to flower till Midsummer, or 
even later. 
Another mode of turning the most ornamental portion of the 
genus to account, is in the employment of them among forcing 
flowers. Their early habit of blooming makes them peculiarly 
adapted to this course, and few plants repay the little attention 
necessary better than the R. sanguineum, and we have no doubt 
of the same success attending the adoption of the double variety, 
though its scarcity has hitherto prevented a trial. For this pur¬ 
pose two or three years’ old plants will be most suitable : they 
should be potted in autumn, or, if grown from cuttings in pots 
they will be preferable ; either way, compact, handsome speci¬ 
mens in perfect health should be selected, and, after keeping 
them dormant till January, may then be introduced to a tem¬ 
perature of about 50 degrees. It must be borne in mind, that, 
though their naturally precocious habit of blooming points them 
out as suitable objects for forcing, the Same reason makes it 
