The old names in France are given in the dictionary by Ménage. According to him, red currants are called at Rouen _gardes_, at Caen _grades_, in Lower Normandy _gradilles_, and in Anjou _castilles_. Ménage derives all these names from _rubius_, _rubicus_, etc., by a series of imaginary transformations, from the word _ruber_, red. Legonidec[1380] tells us that red currants are also called _Kastilez_ (l. liquid) in Brittany, and he derives this name from Castille, as if a fruit scarcely known in Spain and abundant in the north could come from Spain. These words, found both in Brittany and beyond its limits, appear to me to be of Celtic origin; and I may mention, in support of this theory, that in Legonidec’s dictionary _gardis_ means _rough_, _harsh_, _pungent_, _sour_, etc., which gives a hint as to the etymology. The generic name _Ribes_ has caused other errors. It was thought the plant might be one which was so called by the Arabs; but the word comes rather from a name for the currant very common in the north, _ribs_ in Danish,[1381] _risp_ and _resp_ in Swedish.[1382] The Slav names are quite different and in considerable number. +Black Currant+—_Cassis_; _Ribes nigrum_, Linnæus. The black currant grows wild in the north of Europe, from Scotland and Lapland as far as the north of France and Italy; in Bosnia,[1383] Armenia,[1384] throughout Siberia, in the basin of the river Amur, and in the western Himalayas;[1385] it often becomes naturalized, as for instance, in the centre of France.[1386] This shrub was unknown in Greece and Italy, for it is proper to colder countries. From the variety of the names in all the languages, even in those anterior to the Aryans, of the north of Europe, it is clear that this fruit was very early sought after, and its cultivation was probably begun before the Middle Ages. J. Bauhin[1387] says it was planted in gardens in France and Italy, but most sixteenth-century authors do not mention it. In the _Histoire de la Vie Privée des Français_, by Le Grand d’Aussy, published in 1872, vol. i. p. 232, the following curious passage occurs: “The black currant has been cultivated hardly forty years, and it owes its reputation to a pamphlet entitled _Culture du Cassis_, in which the author attributed to this shrub all the virtues it is possible to imagine.” Further on (vol. iii. p. 80), the author mentions the frequent use, since the publication of the pamphlet in question, of a liqueur made from the black currant. Bosc, who is always accurate in his articles in the _Dictionnaire d’Agriculture_, mentions this fashion under the head _Currant_, but he is careful to add, “It has been very long in cultivation for its fruit, which has a peculiar odour agreeable to some, disagreeable to others, and which is held to be stomachic and diuretic.” It is also used in the manufacture of the liqueurs known as ratafia de Cassis.[1388] +Olive+—_Olea Europea_, Linnæus.