The Greeks and Romans do not mention the species, which is rare in the South, and which is hardly worth planting where grapes will ripen. It is especially in Germany, Holland, and England that it has been cultivated from the sixteenth century,[1369] principally as a seasoning, whence the English name, and the French _groseille à maquereaux_ (mackerel currant). A wine is also made from it. The frequency of its cultivation in the British Isles and in other places where it is found wild, which are often near gardens, has suggested to some English botanists the idea of an accidental naturalization. This is likely enough in Ireland;[1370] but as it is an essentially European species, I do not see why it should not have existed in England, where the wild plant is more common, since the establishment of most of the species of the British flora; that is to say, since the end of the glacial period, before the separation of the island from the continent. Phillips quotes an old English name, _feaberry_ or _feabes_, which supports the theory of an ancient existence, and two Welsh names,[1371] of which I cannot, however, certify the originality. +Red Currant+—_Ribes rubrum_, Linnæus. The common red currant is wild throughout Northern and Temperate Europe, and in Siberia[1372] as far as Kamtschatka, and in America, from Canada and Vermont to the mouth of the river Mackenzie.[1373] Like the preceding species, it was unknown to the Greeks and Romans, and its cultivation was only introduced in the Middle Ages. The cultivated plant hardly differs from the wild one. That the plant was foreign to the south of Europe is shown by the name of _groseillier d’outremer_ (currant from beyond the sea), given in France[1374] in the sixteenth century. In Geneva the currant is still commonly called _raisin de mare_, and in the canton of Soleure _meertrübli_. I do not know why the species was supposed, three centuries ago, to have come from beyond seas. Perhaps this should be understood to mean that it was brought by the Danes and the Northmen, and that these peoples from beyond the northern seas introduced its cultivation. I doubt it, however, for the _Ribes rubrum_ is wild in almost the whole of Great Britain[1375] and in Normandy;[1376] the English, who were in constant communication with the Danes, did not cultivate it as late as 1557, from a list of the fruits of that epoch drawn up by Th. Tusser, and published by Phillips;[1377] and even in the time of Gerard, in 1597,[1378] its cultivation was rare, and the plant had no particular name.[1379] Lastly, there are French and Breton names which indicate a cultivation anterior to the Normans in the west of France.