ORDER XCIV.--GROSSULARIEÆ.--THE GOOSEBERRY TRIBE.
[Illustration: FIG. 136.--THE GOOSEBERRY. (_Ribes Grossularia_).]
This order consists of only one genus (_Ribes_), which includes all the Gooseberries and Currants; the two kinds forming two distinct sections. The first section, which embraces all the Gooseberries, has prickly stems, and the flowers are produced singly, or in clusters of not more than two or three together. The flower of the common Gooseberry (_Ribes Grossularia_) consists principally of the calyx (_a_ in _fig._ 136), the five segments of the limb of which are turned back, and coloured of a reddish-brown. The petals (_b_) are white and erect, and bearded at the throat; but they are so small and inconspicuous, that few people would notice them if they were not pointed out. The stamens (_c_) are five in number, and erect, and the anthers burst lengthways on the inside. The ovary (_d_) is below the cup of the calyx, and the style, which is cloven to the base (_e_), is always covered with hairs in the common Gooseberry (_R. Grossularia_), and is more or less hairy in the other species. There are two little bracteoles (_f_) on the pedicel; and a large bract, deeply cut, at the point from which the pedicel springs (_g_). The leaves, which are omitted in the engraving, also grow from the same bud, and are three or five lobed, and hairy; and there are three spines just below them. The fruit is a many-seeded berry, with the seeds immersed in pulp; and on cutting open an unripe fruit, it will be found that the seeds are each inclosed in an aril, with a separate footstalk, by which they are attached to a membrane lining the sides of the berry, and which is called a parietal placenta. The segments of the calyx remain on the ripe fruit. Several of the ornamental species of Ribes belong to this division, as, for example, _R. triflorum_, which has white flowers; and _R. speciosum_, which has crimson flowers, with the segments of the calyx not reflexed, and long projecting stamens like those of the Fuchsia. The fruit and the whole of the stems and branches of this species are covered with spines, and thus the plant is easily distinguished from the common gooseberry, the stem of which has no spines, except three just below each bud.