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    260 FRUITS IN THEIK SEASON.

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    Viii. Oi/D Goosebeery A^D His Cuirakt Ee...

    and color very nearly resembles a grape-stone . When fully blown it is seen to consist of a green calyx , slightly tinged perhaps with

    dull red , and divided at the edge into five sepals ; at the base of these rise five tiny colorless scales _, which represent -petals , and

    between these are the five stamens ; the whole arranged upon a central ovary , situate below the floral part , and looking like a sudden

    swelling of the flower-stalk . Ere long this ovary swells more and more ; it is soon traceable that there are little seeds within it ,

    arranged in two groups , and attached to its sides by threads , and when eventually it has become a large juicy berry , these seeds are

    still fettered to its walls and sustained amid the pulp by the same soft but firm ligatures . And though the blossom has long since

    • withered , its principal part , the calyx , has not disappeared , but merely dried upand nowbrown and shrivelledstill clings to the

    object which has , so distended , beneath it , and keeps , the same place to the last upon the great berry which it did at first upon the little

    ovary—a relic of humble origin retained by the expanded fruit , like the apron preserved by the ex-blacksmith of Persia in all the

    exaltation of royal grandeur . Even at its best estate this blossom of the gooseberry had been

    so small and insignificant , making little more show while unopened than a leaf budand scarcely distinguishable in its lair among the

    , leaves even when full blown , that , comparing it with the great and g'orgeous flowers which kindle the cactus into stars of flame , it

    might appear as reasonable for a linnet to claim cousinship with a peacock as for these most oj > posite seeming products of the

    vegetable kingdom to jmt in a plea of relationship . Yet it is a botanical fact that the plants are closely alliedand the _cactee are considered

    , as the tropical representatives of the _grossularice of cold climates . Careful inspection will show many points of similarity , for though

    the gooseberry has leaves and the cactus has none , consisting entirely of succulent stems , the latter shoots forth many _appendages ,

    which are affirmed to be foliage in state of abortion , and therefore tending to disappearancethe " very sharpe , cruel ! , crooked (?)

    , thorns , which no man's hand can well avoid that doth handle them , " spoken of thus plaintively by an old botanist , being now

    looked on as mere mid-ribs without any expansion of fleshy substance to form them into leaves , and which therefore harden into

    mere prickly spines . The ovary , too , swelling as it does directly out of the stalk'is another feature in commonand in the matured _,

    fruit the resemblance , is far more obvious ; indeed , , so much so , that one _sjDecies of cactus bears the name of the West Indian gooseberry .

    An ornamental species of grossularia , a native of California and the west coast of Americaintroduced here in 1829 and now not

    , , uncommon , shows a taste more in affinity with its gaily-dressing tropical relativesby assuming a rich robe of crimsonthe calyx of

    , , the blossom being * large and highly-colored like a fuchsia , making

    it a very desirable acquisition in the flower garden . In Siberia are

    260 Fruits In Theik Season.

    260 FRUITS IN THEIK SEASON .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1861, page 260, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061861/page/44/