of Gardening' page 930; and Alph. De Candolle 'Geograph. Bot.' page 910.) In the 'Gooseberry Grower's Register' for 1862 I find that 243 distinct varieties have won prizes at various periods, so that a vast number must have been exhibited. No doubt the difference between many of the varieties is very small; but Mr. Thompson in classifying the fruit for the Horticultural Society found less confusion in the nomenclature of the gooseberry than of any other fruit, and he attributes this "to the great interest which the prize-growers have taken in detecting sorts with wrong names," and this shows that all the kinds, numerous as they are, can be recognised with certainty.
The bushes differ in their manner of growth, being erect, or spreading, or pendulous. The periods of leafing and flowering differ both absolutely and relatively to each other; thus the Whitesmith produces early flowers, which from not being protected by the foliage, as it is believed, continually fail to produce fruit. (10/122. Loudon's 'Gardener's Magazine' volume 4 1828 page 112.) The leaves vary in size, tint, and in depth of lobes; they are smooth, downy, or hairy on the upper surface. The branches are more or less downy or spinose; "the Hedgehog has probably derived its name from the singular bristly condition of its shoots and fruit." The branches of the wild gooseberry, I may remark, are smooth, with the exception of thorns at the bases of the buds. The thorns themselves are either very small, few and single, or very large and triple; they are sometimes reflexed and much dilated at their bases. In the different varieties the fruit varies in abundance, in the period of maturity, in hanging until shrivelled, and greatly in size, "some sorts having their fruit large during a very early period of growth, whilst others are small, until nearly ripe." The fruit varies also much in colour, being red, yellow, green, and white--the pulp of one dark-red gooseberry being tinged with yellow; in flavour; in being smooth or downy,--few, however, of the Red gooseberries, whilst many of the so-called Whites, are downy; or in being so spinose that one kind is called Henderson's Porcupine. Two kinds acquire when mature a powdery bloom on their fruit. The fruit varies in the thickness and veining of the skin, and, lastly, in shape, being spherical, oblong, oval, or obovate. (10/123. The fullest account of the gooseberry is given by Mr. Thompson in 'Transact. Hort. Soc.' volume 1 2nd series 1835 page 218 from which most of the foregoing facts are taken.)
I cultivated fifty-four varieties, and, considering how greatly the fruit differs, it was curious how closely similar the flowers were in all these kinds. In only a few I detected a trace of difference in the size or colour of the corolla. The calyx differed in a rather greater degree, for in some kinds it was much redder than in others; and in one smooth white gooseberry it was unusually red. The calyx also differed in the basal part being smooth or woolly, or covered with glandular hairs. It deserves notice, as being contrary to what might have been expected from the law of correlation, that a smooth red gooseberry had a remarkably hairy calyx. The flowers of the Sportsman are furnished with very large coloured bracteae; and this is the most singular deviation of structure which I have observed. These same flowers also varied much in the number of the petals, and occasionally in the number of the stamens and pistils; so that they were semi-monstrous in structure, yet they produced plenty of fruit. Mr. Thompson remarks that in the Pastime gooseberry "extra bracts are often attached to the sides of the fruit." (10/124. 'Catalogue of Fruits of Hort. Soc. Garden' 3rd edition 1842.)
The most interesting point in the history of the gooseberry is the steady increase in the size of the fruit. Manchester is the metropolis of the fanciers, and prizes from five shillings to five or ten pounds are yearly given for the heaviest fruit. The 'Gooseberry Growers Register' is published annually; the earliest known copy is dated 1786, but it is certain that meetings for the adjudication of prizes were held some years previously.