| From the Journal of the Board of Agriculture (May 1907), by permission of the Dept. of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland. |
| Fig. 3A.—American Gooseberry Mildew (Sphaerotheca mors-uvae). Plant with leaves and fruit attacked by the fungus. |
The gooseberry, when ripe, yields a fine wine by the fermentation of the juice with water and sugar, the resulting sparkling liquor retaining much of the flavour of the fruit. By similarly treating the juice of the green fruit, picked just before it ripens, an effervescing wine is produced, nearly resembling some kinds of champagne, and, when skilfully prepared, far superior to much of the liquor sold under that name. Brandy has been made from ripe gooseberries by distillation; by exposing the juice with sugar to the acetous fermentation a good vinegar may be obtained. The gooseberry, when perfectly ripe, contains a large quantity of sugar, most abundant in the red and amber varieties; in the former it amounts to from 6 to upwards of 8%. The acidity of the fruit is chiefly due to malic acid.
| Fig. 3B.—1, Fructification (perithecium) bursting, ascus containing spores protruding; 2, Ascus with spores more highly magnified. |
Several other species of the sub-genus produce edible fruit, though none have as yet been brought under economic culture. Among them may be noticed R. oxyacanthoides and R. Cynosbati, abundant in Canada and the northern parts of the United States, and R. gracile, common along the Alleghany range. The group is a widely distributed one in the north temperate zone,—one species is found in Europe extending to the Caucasus and North Africa (Atlas Mountains), five occur in Asia and nineteen in North America, the range extending southwards to Mexico and Guatemala.
[1] The first part of the word has been usually treated as an etymological corruption either of this Dutch word or the allied Ger. Krausbeere, or of the earlier forms of the Fr. groseille. The New English Dictionary takes the obvious derivation from “goose” and “berry” as probable; “the grounds on which plants and fruits have received names associating them with animals are so commonly inexplicable, that the want of appropriateness in the meaning affords no sufficient ground for assuming that the word is an etymologizing corruption.” Skeat (Etym. Dict., 1898) connects the French, Dutch and German words, and finds the origin in the M.H.G. krus, curling, crisped, applied here to the hairs on the fruit. The French word was latinized as grossularia and confused with groseus, thick, fat.
GOOTY, a town and hill fortress in southern India, in the Anantapur district of Madras, 48 m. E. of Bellary. Pop. (1901) 9682. The town is surrounded by a circle of rocky hills, connected by a wall. On the highest of these stands the citadel, 2100 ft. above sea-level and 1000 ft. above the surrounding country. Here was the stronghold of Morari Rao Ghorpade, a famous Mahratta warrior and ally of the English, who was ultimately starved into surrender by Hayder Ali in 1775.
GOPHER (Testudo polyphemus), the only living representative on the North American continent of the genus Testudo of the family Testudinidae or land tortoises; it occurs in the south-eastern parts of the United States, from Florida in the south to the river Savannah in the north. Its carapace, which is oblong and remarkably compressed, measures from 12-18 in. in extreme length, the shields which cover it being grooved, and of a yellow-brown colour. It is characterized by the shape of the front lobe of the plastron, which is bent upwards and extends beyond the carapace. The gopher abounds chiefly in the forests, but occasionally visits the open plains, where it does great damage, especially to the potato crops, on which it feeds. It is a nocturnal animal, remaining concealed by day in its deep burrow, and coming forth at night to feed. The eggs, five in number, almost round and 1½ in. in diameter, are laid in a separate cavity near the entrance. The flesh of the gopher or mungofa, as it is also called, is considered excellent eating.