CURRANT-TREE.-RIBES. In Botany, a Genus of the Pentandria THIS agreeable and wholesome fruit is undoubtedly a native of our country: it was formerly found growing in the wild state, in woods and hedges in Yorkshire, Durham, and Westmorland, as well as on the banks of the Tay and other parts of Scotland. As a further proof of its being a northern fruit, we have no account of its having been at all known to the ancient Greeks or Romans, who have been very accurate in describing all the fruits known in their time. It seems not to have grown so far south as France; for the old French name of groseilles d'outremer evidently bespeaks it not to have been a native of that country, and even at the present time their language has no appropriate name for it distinct from the gooseberry. The Dutch also acknowledge it not to have been indigenous to Holland, where it was called besskins over zee. Whether the Dutch first procured this fruit from Britain, or from any other northern countries, we must acknowledge ourselves indebted to the gardeners of that country for so improving the size, if not the flavour of this fruit. The English name of currant seems to have been taken from the similitude of the fruit to that of the small Zante grapes, which we call currants, or Corinths, from Corinth, where this fruit formerly grew in great abundance, and which are so much used in this country for cakes, puddings, &c. The Italians seem to have no other name for the currants than uvette, little grapes. At Geneva they are called raisins de Mars. The currant does not appear in the list of fruits published by Thomas Tusser in 1557, which I have transcribed to shew what fruits were cultivated in the latter part of Queen Mary's reign. Apples of all sorts, apricots, barberries ; boollesse, black and white; cherries, red and black; chesnuts; cornet plums; damisens, white and black; filberds, red and white; gooseberries; grapes, white and red; green or grass plums; hurtil berries; medlers, or meles; mulberries; peaches, white and red; peeres of all sorts; peer plums, black and yellow; quince-trees; raspis; reisons; small nuts; strawberries, red and white; service trees; wardens, white and red; walnuts; wheat plums. Currants were not distinguished from gooseberries by any particular name at that period; and even in Gerard's time, they were considered as a species of the gooseberry, He says, in his account of the latter fruit, "We have also in our London gardens another sort altogether without prickes, whose fruit is verie small, lesser by much than the common kinde, but of a perfect red colour, where.in it differeth from the rest of his kinde." Lord Bacon, who wrote about fifty years after Tusser, has noticed them he says, "The earliest fruits are strawberries, cherries, gooseberries, corrans, and after them early apples, early pears, apricots, rasps, and after them damisons, and most kinds of plums, peaches, &c.; and the latest are apples, wardens, grapes, nuts, quinces, almonds, sloes, brierberries, hops, medlers, services, cornelians, &c." Currants are a fruit of great importance in this country: they are so easily propa gated, that every cottage gardener can rear them; and they are likewise so regular in bearing, that it is seldom they are injured by the weather. At the dessert, they are greatly esteemed, being found cooling and grateful to the stomach; and they are as much admired for their transparent beauty, as for their medicinal qualities, being moderately refrigerant, antiseptic, attenuant, and aperient. They may be used with advantage to allay thirst in most febrile complaints, to lessen an increased secretion of bile, and to correct a putrid and scorbutic state of the fluids, especially in sanguine temperaments: but in constitutions of a contrary kind, they are apt to occasion flatulency and indigestion. Brookes says, they strengthen the stomach, excite appetite, and are good against vomiting. : Besides the red and the white currant, the salmon colour, or champaigne, is cultivated for variety. The currant is a fruit that will ripen early, when planted in a warm situation, and may be retarded so as to be gathered in good condition in the month of November, when they are planted in a northern aspect: thus, with care, a skilful gardener will furnish a dessert of this fruit for six months, without the aid of artificial heat. Currants will keep for years in bottles, retaining all their qualities for tarts, &c. if they are gathered perfectly dry, and not too ripe. They only require to be kept from the air, and in a dry situation. I have found it an advantage to pack them in a chest, with the corks downwards; and if the vacua be filled up with dry sand, it would insure their preservation. The red currant gives the finest flavour for jelly. The wine made from the white currants, if rich of the fruit, so as to require little sugar, is, when kept to a proper age, of a similar flavour to the Grave and Rhenish wines; and I have known it preferred as a summer table wine. Even in London this agreeable beverage may be made at less expence than moderate cider can be bought for. Diluted in water, this wine is an excellent drink in the hot season, particularly to those of feverish habits. It makes an excellent shrub; and the juice is a pleasant acid in punch, which, about thirty years back, was a favourite beverage in the coffee-houses in Paris. The best English brandy I have tasted, was distilled from weak currant wine, by a gentleman at Windsor; and I have no doubt |