The cultivation of the cochineal, which was unfavourable to the production of the fruit,[1362] is dying out since the manufacture of colouring matters by chemical processes.
+Gooseberry+—_Ribes grossularia_ and _R. Vacrispa_, Linnæus.
The fruit of the cultivated varieties is generally smooth, or provided with a few stiff hairs, while that of the wild varieties has soft and shorter hairs; but intermediate forms exist, and it has been shown by experiment that by sowing the seeds of the cultivated fruit, plants with either smooth or hairy fruit are obtained.[1363] There is, therefore, but one species, which has produced under cultivation one principal variety and several sub-varieties as to the size, colour, or taste of the fruit.
The gooseberry grows wild throughout temperate Europe, from Southern Sweden to the mountainous regions of Central Spain, of Italy, and of Greece.[1364] It is also mentioned in Northern Africa, but the last published catalogue of Algerian plants[1365] indicates it only in the mountains of Aures, and Ball has found a variety in the Atlas of Marocco.[1366] It grows in the Caucasus,[1367] and under more or less different forms in the western Himalayas.[1368]
The Greeks and Romans do not mention the species, which is rare in the South, and which is hardly worth planting where grapes will ripen. It is especially in Germany, Holland, and England that it has been cultivated from the sixteenth century,[1369] principally as a seasoning, whence the English name, and the French _groseille à maquereaux_ (mackerel currant). A wine is also made from it.
The frequency of its cultivation in the British Isles and in other places where it is found wild, which are often near gardens, has suggested to some English botanists the idea of an accidental naturalization. This is likely enough in Ireland;[1370] but as it is an essentially European species, I do not see why it should not have existed in England, where the wild plant is more common, since the establishment of most of the species of the British flora; that is to say, since the end of the glacial period, before the separation of the island from the continent. Phillips quotes an old English name, _feaberry_ or _feabes_, which supports the theory of an ancient existence, and two Welsh names,[1371] of which I cannot, however, certify the originality.