CALIFORNIAN WILD CURRANT. INCENSE-SHRUB.
Ribes glutinosum, Benth. Saxifrage Family.
Shrubs six to fifteen feet high. Leaves.—Three- to five-lobed; glutinous when young; three to five inches broad. Flowers.—Rose-pink to pale pink; in long drooping racemes. Calyx.—Petaloid; five-lobed. Petals and stamens five on the calyx. Ovary.—One-celled. Styles two; more or less united. Berries.—Blue, with a dense bloom; glandular-hispid. Syn.—Ribes sanguineum, Pursh. Hab.—The Coast Ranges; more common southward.
In early winter in the south, and somewhat later northward, the wild currant becomes a thing of beauty hardly to have been expected. The young foliage, of a clear brilliant green, is gayly decked with the long clusters of peculiarly fresh pink blossoms, which seem like the very incarnation of the spirit of Spring, producing a certain eblouissement, which quickens our sense into an anticipation of beauty on every side.
We are made aware of a strong, heavy fragrance emanating from this shrub, for which its numerous glands are responsible, and which has gained for it the popular name of "incense-shrub" in some localities.
The fruit, which ripens toward fall, is dry and bitter, or insipid.
The genus Ribes includes the currant and the gooseberry, and furnishes us with several charming shrubs in California.
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