CURRANT, a name originally belonging to a small kind of grape (see CURRANTS), and transferred, in consequence of the similar size of the fruit, to many species of the genus ribes, the most important and almost the only genus of the natural order grossu larfacetc. The species known as currants are destitute of spines, and have the flowers in racemes: the spiny species are known by the name Gooseberry (q.v.). Among the fruit shrubs most generally cultivated in our gardens is the RED C. (R. rubrum), gros seille of the French, a native of woods and thickets in the s. of Europe, found also in sane parts of Asia and of North America, perhaps rather a naturalized than a truly native plant in Britain. It has long been cultivated, although it does not appear that it had a place in the gardens of the ancient Greeks or Romans. The berries, besides being Used for dessert, and to a much greater extent for pies, and for making jelly, are used also for making an agreeable and refreshing beverage, called in France eau de grosseillcs (made of the juice Or the fruit, Water and sugar, strained, • and iced), and a well-known fermented liquor called currant wine (q.v.). The 'WRITE C. is a mere variety of the red, the result of cultivation, with fruit less acid, and more fit for dessert, generally also rather larger. There are many sub-varieties, and many intermediate shades of color. Both the red and the white currants are either trained or standard bushes, or against walls, the latter treatment producing larger and finer fruit, and both are sometimes, trained on a n. wall, to retard their ripening till after the ordinary season. They grow readily, like the shrubs of this genus in general, from cuttings. The BLACK C. (I?. vigrum), cassis of the French, grows in moist woods, and on the banks of streams in Europe and the n. of Asia. The fruit is much larger than the red C., and cultivation has lately produced varieties remarkable for size. There is a variety found in Russia with yellow berries. The black C. is not so much cultivated in Germany and Holland as the red, and is comparatively neglected even in England, but is to be found in almost every garden in Scotland. The jelly and preserve made from it are very useful for sore throats, as is also black C. vinegar, made in the same manner as raspberry vinegar. In Russia, the berries are gathered in large quantities in the woods, and dried in ovens, to be used in pies. They are tonic, and also slightly diuretic and sudorific. A liqueur,
called liqueur de crisis, is prepared in France from the black C., the manufacture of which has recently acquired a great importance in the Cote d'Or and neighboring de partments. The town of Dijon contains more than 30 manufactories, and produced recently, in one year, not less than 220,000 gallons, the wholesale price of which—of the best quality—was equal to 2s. 9d. per quart. Large tracts of land are planted with the black C. to supply the liqueur manufactories. It has very reasonably been suggested that the experiment of the introduction of this manufacture should be made in Scotland, and even in the Hebrides and Shetland islands, where the black C. perhaps grows as luxuriantly, and bears fruit as abundantly as in any part of the world. Many other species of C., producing berries somewhat similar to those of the species so extensively cultivated, and some of them probably deserving of attention and cultivation, are found in temperate and cold climates in almost all parts of the world. One with beautiful red berries, larger than the largest English red C., occurs on the Himalaya, at an elevation of 13,000 feet. The RED-FLOWERED G. (R. sanguineum), now so common as an orna mental bush in shrubberies, and trained on walls, producing in April a profusion of deep-red flowers in large drooping racemes, is a native of the n.w. of America, and was introduced into Britain in 1826. Its bluish-black, mucilaginous, insipid berries are not, as is popularly believed, poisonous. The GOLDEN C. (R. aureum), also a very orna mental shrub, from the same regions, has a tubular calyx and long golden yellow flowers. Its fruit,which is either yellow or black, and of fine flavor, is not freely pro duced in Britain. The name NATIVE C., or AUSTRALIAN C., is given in Australia to the berries of different shrubs, particularly the white berries of leucapogon Rickel., of the natural order epacridacece (q.v.). The French naturalist Riche, who was attached to D'Entrecasteaux's expedition, mainly supported himself on these berries for three days, when he had been lost by his companions. Other fruits bearing the same name are produced by species of coprosma (nat. ord. cinchonacect), but they are very inferior.