On this page
-
Text (1)
-
FRUITS'IN THEIR SEASON. 265
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Viii. Oi/D Goosebeery A^D His Cuirakt Ee...
rather puzzling to translate , and can scarcely claim to be , even in English , " . very good and very beautiful ; " indeed , the practice of
choosing such slang-like denominations as figure not unfrequently among the three hundred varieties recognised by English growers ,
has been condemned by the better class of our gardeners ; but even an ill-chosen name is better than none at all , and in France the
hapless fruit has found no kind sponsor to bestow upon it any distinctive appellation _, and must be content to share with the
currant the common term groseille . Considering the fruit is so decidedly anti-Gallican , it is rather curious to find that our favorite
dish , gooseberry fool , must seek its etymology on the other side of the Channel , the latter-word being derived from fouler , to press or
crush . It is most probable that the French judgment of gooseberries is
influenced in some measure by the same cause which led the fox to his well-known conclusion concerning another fruit ; for in the
native specimens , the magnum and the honum seem never to be found in combination ; the one figured in Du Hamel as the largest ,
though in size but little exceeding a cherry , is so insipid that it is only brought to table to please the eye , while the one which is
described as the best flavored , the " _niignone , " is also the very smallestand a mere darkslightly lobed little pigmy , less in size
, , than a good black currant , and burdened with an appendage of shrivelled calyx twice as long as itself . Nor is indifference or
contempt for this fruit confined to the French , for a Piedmontese botanist describes it as being " eatablebut somewhat astringent , "
, and in Spain and Italy it is hardly known , the latter having no better name for it than _zwa spinaor the prickly grape ; a term
poetically elevated at Geneva int , o Raisin de Mars . As it is always found , toothat the fruit soon degenerates unless constant
, attention be bestowed on the plant , it is hardly likely that sufficient care will ever be taken to develop its capabilities in climates where
abundance of fruit , equal or superior to it , can be obtained from the vine _£ gy or pear treeat the cost of far less trouble . Nor ,
, , indeed , might any amount of care be fully successful , for this " cold beauty of the North" does not thrive well in warm countries , a low
temperature seeming necessary to brace it to perfection ; and indeed so long as there be just sufficient sunshine to ripen it , the colder
the climate iel which it grows the better is its quality ; so that , other things being equalits flavor will be found finer in Yorkshire
, than in Devonshire ; bleaker Scotland outrivals either , and even : there Inverness surpasses Edinburgh . It does not even succeed
well in the United States , notwithstanding great pains have been taken to introduce it there , the heat of the summers proving too
great for it ; and Mrs . Trollope records that at Cincinnati she found " gooseberries very fewand quite uneatable . " In the countries of
, Northern -Europe , however , there is no reason why a fruit which so amply repays any care that may be devoted to it in a suitable
tol , tii . v
Fruits'in Their Season. 265
FRUITS ' IN THEIR SEASON . 265
-
-
Citation
-
English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1861, page 265, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061861/page/49/
-