TAB 7-4 
BERBERIS virzscens. 
Native of the Sikkim Himalaya. 
Nat. Ord. BerpertIpex.—Tribe BERBERE. 
Genus Berzeris, Linn. ; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol.i. p- 43.) 
BERBE RIS virescens ; frutex ramosus, ramis divaricatis teretibus v. subsulcatis, 
cortice brunneo nitido, foliis parvis obovatis obtusis apiculatisve enerviis 
integerrimis v. distanter spinuloso-dentatis, subtus pallidis vix glauces- 
eentibus, aculeis tripartitis gracilibus, floribus parvis fasciculatis v. in 
racemos paucifloros subsessiles dispositis sulphureis v. pallide viridibus, 
sepalis ovatis, petalis spathulatis, baccis gracile pedicellatis parvis lineari- 
oblongis oblongo-lanceolatisve leviter compressis coccineis monospermis, 
_ _stigmate parvo disciformi subsessili. 
Berberis sp., Hook: S. et Thoms, Flor. Ind. 229; and Fl. Brit. Ind. vol. i. p- 112; 
sp. 2 ad calcem generis. 
? B. Belstaniana, Hort. 
It is with great hesitation that I propose as a pew 
species a Himalayan Barbery, especially considering the 
number and great variability of those already known, and 
the difficulty of discriminating and defining their forms. 
There is, however, this to be said for B. virescens, that I 
recognized it when travelling in Sikkim in 1849 as very 
different from any, I had collected in that region; and 
when describing the genus for the Indian Flora, I refrained 
from naming it in the absence of fruit, and merely men- 
tioned it at the end of the genus. No doubt I sent seeds 
of it to Kew, for I find a note attached to the native spe- 
cimens in the Herbarium, to the effect that it flowered in 
the Royal Gardens in July, 1855. Unfortunately no 
specimens of the latter were preserved, and it was not till 
quite lately (in 1887) that the species reappeared, when 
specimens were sent to be named by Thomas Acton, Esq., 
of Kilmacurragh, Rathdrum, Ireland, since which it has 
been received by Sir Charles Strickland, Bart., of Hil- 
denley, Maldon, which were from plants raised (as were Mr. 
Acton’s) from seeds sent from Sikkim by Mr. Elwes ; and 
also from the Gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society at 
Chiswick, the latter with a note that wasps eat the flowers. 
As a species B. virescens is perhaps most nearly allied 
to B. aristata, and in the small leaves to the varieties 
crategina and cretica of B. vulgaris, which are also na- 
tives of the Himalaya. And indeed there are in the. 
May Isr, 1890, 
