R I B E S. alpinum.
Tajlelefs Mountain Currants.
P E N T A N D R I A Monogynia.
G en. C har. Cal. fuperior, bell-fhaped, 5 -cleft, bearing
the petals and Jlamina. Style cloven. Berry
with many feeds.
Spec. Char. No thorns. Clufters eredt both in
flower and fruit. Bradleae longer than the flowers.
Leaves fhining beneath.
Syn . Ribes alpinum. Linn. Sp. PI. 291. Sm. FI.
B?it. 264. Hudf. 99. With. 264. Hull. 54.
Dickf. H. Sicc. fafc. 15. 13. Lightf. 146.
R. alpinus dulcis. Raii Syn. 456.
A N A T I V E of rocky mountainous woods or thickets in
fome parts of the north of England and Scotland. We received
a fpecimen in flower from Mr. E. Robfon May 39 laft,
and another in fruit from Mr. W . Brunton, jun. of Ripon,
June 20.
This cannot be confounded with any other Britifh Ribes.
The fmall leaves, fo fmooth and fhining underneath, the con-
ftantly upright fpikes, and the infipid fruit clearly afceftain it.
The berries, fo far from having the {harp acidity of our red
currants, are filled with a mucilage as taftelefs as gum arabic.
The flirub is about 2 or 3 feet high, much branched, fmooth,
except that the leaf-ftalks are ciliated. Flowers fmall, of a
dull greeny with glandular ftalks, and brown membranous
bradteae exceeding each flower in length. The bark in winter
is covered with fmall black Spharia, or other minute
Fungi, which Mr. Sowerby propofes to" 'illuftrate hereafter in
his admirable figures of that curious and intricate tribe.
It is well worth obferving how truly the infertion of the
{lamina into the calyx, as in the clafs Icofandria, indicates a
wholefome fruit. The fruits of the Pentandria Monogynia
are generally dangerous, many of them peculiarly fatal. Ribes
is an exception, indicated by the infertion of its {lamina, in
which, though not in their number, it accords with the
Icofandria. With this Ample guide a traveller in the moft
unknown wildernefs might eat in fafety, and thus the natural
tree of knowledge leads to life.