19 



hitherto grown in a pot in a cold frame, and seems impatient 

 of much heat, from which I suspect it to be a native of high 

 lands, and that it will ultimately prove as hardy as the well 

 known Berberis glumacea, or B.fascicularis. To the latter it 

 may be said to have some resemblance, but is less prickly and 

 compact in its foliage, which is of a thinner texture with 

 longer foot-stalks. Stem erect, round, pale brown, slightly 

 striated, becoming of a deep reddish brown colour near the 

 extremity of the shoots. Leaves consisting of from 2 to 4 pair 

 of leaflets, but generally they seem to be 3-paired, ovate-acu- 

 minate, about %\ inches long, and an inch broad, thin and 

 rigid, of a bright shining green, excepting the margin which 

 is a pale yellow, and furnished with moderately long, sharp, 

 brownish spines. The leaflets themselves are almost sessile, 

 attached to a round, wiry, deep green footstalk, varying from 

 6 inches to a foot in length, swelling at the base and flattened 

 so as to embrace the stem. Flowers produced on a round 

 slender raceme, 9 inches long and of a brownish red colour, 

 bearing on its upper half a dozen or more gracefully drooping, 

 pale, straw-coloured globular flowers, each half an inch in dia- 

 meter, and suspended by a very slender pedicell, about an 

 inch long, with two minute acuminate bracts in the middle, 

 and another somewhat larger at the base. Sepals of 12 divi- 

 sions, roundish concave, pale yellow, arranged in four rows 

 alternately round the base of the ovarium,— the outer row 

 much smaller than the rest. Petals considerably narrower 

 than the sepals, more erect and of deeper colour, as well as 

 slightly cut at the margin. Filaments of the same colour as 

 the petals, and rather more than half their length, somewhat 

 curved and flattened at the extremity so as to give the anther 

 the appearance of being split into two distinct bodies. Ova- 

 rium erect, nearly round and thick in proportion to its height, 

 with a pale green stigma. Berries (globose, apparently 

 purple. — J. L.)" m 



For this communication, and a drawing of the plant itself, 

 we are indebted to Mr. W. B. Booth. This species proves to 

 be the B. pallida of Hartweg, found at La Majada, San Jose 

 del Oro, Zacualtepan, Cardonal, and Atotomlco el Grande in 

 the north-east of Mexico ; so that we conclude the species to 

 about as hardy as Berberis fascicularis. It is at present a plant 

 of extreme raritv, the two specimens at Carclew and one in 

 the Garden of the Horticultural Society being, as far as we 



