Shrubs, with alternate often fascicled usually lobed petioled leaves, and racemose or subsolitary regular flowers, the pedicels mostly bracteolate. Calyx-tube (hypanthium) ovoid, cylindric or hemispheric, adnate to the ovary, the limb 4-5-lobed, often colored. Petals 4 or 5, inserted on the throat of the calyx, small, scale-like, often included. Stamens 4 or 5, inserted with the petals, included or exserted. Ovary inferior, 1-celled; styles 2, distinct or united; ovules few or numerous. Berry globose or ovoid, pulpy, the calyx persistent on its summit. Seeds horizontal, obscurely angled, their outer coat gelatinous, the inner crusta-ceous. Embryo small, terete, in fleshy endosperm.

Two genera and about 120 species, widely distributed. Currantworts.

Pedicels jointed beneath the ovary; fruit disarticulating from the pedicels; plants without nodal

spines.

1.

Ribes.

Pedicels not jointed; fruit not disarticulating from the pedicels; plants with nodal spines.

2.

Grossularia.