784 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



BARBERRIES: A STUDY OF USES AND ORIGINS. 



Br FREDEKICK Le EOY SAEGENT. 



n. 



WHILE the vegetative organs of barberries exhibit, as we 

 have seen, an abundant variety of form and many degrees 

 of differentiation, the reproductive organs are, on the contrary, so 

 very similar throughout the group that what we may find to be 

 true of a single example, such as Berberis vulgaris, will apply 

 very generally to all the other species. 



In the flowers (Figs. 2 and 3) there is traceable in almost every 

 feature some relation to the visits of insects. Thus the conspicu- 

 ousness gained by the yellow color * of every part, enhanced by 

 the clustering of the flowers and supplemented by their sweet 

 perfumes f attractively advertise, the abundant nectar which vis- 

 itors find provided for them through the activity of the twelve 

 orange glands (Fig. 3, N). In time of rain these sweets are pro- 

 tected by the pendent or nodding attitude of the flowers. On the 

 arrival of an insect the movements by which it obtains a sip of 

 the nectar are turned to account in a way to secure an advanta- 

 geous transfer of the pollen from anther to stigma. 



It has long been known that the stamens are so sensitive that 

 at the slightest touch on the filament there is a quick inward 

 bending of the organ which brings the anther with its exposed 

 pollen to the center of the flower. Subsequently the stamen re- 

 gains its original position, and will now respond to another touch 

 as before. Sprengel in whose classic work J were first revealed 

 some of Nature's most cherished secrets, considered this to be 

 an arrangement whereby insect visitors brought about the self- 

 pollination of the flower, thus making possible the setting of 

 seeds. But later experiments have shown that while Sprengel 

 was entirely right in supposing insect visits to be of the utmost 

 importance in securing fertilization, nevertheless the barberry 

 is no exception to the general rule announced by Darwin, that 

 flowers which attract insects gain from their visits the advan- 

 tages which come from the transference of the pollen of one flower 



* As berberine is reported to occur in the flowers (Huseraan u. Hilger, Pflanzenstoffe), 

 their color may be considered as due at least in part to the same pigment which is present 

 in the wood and bark. 



f According to Kerner (Pflanzenleben, ii, p. 195) this odor is essentially the same as 

 that of white hawthorn flowers, which is known to arise from the presence of trimeth- 

 ylamine a substance widely distributed in Nature, and curiously enough the cause of the 

 characteristic odor of herring brine. 



\ Das entdeckte Geheimniss der Natur im Bau und in der Befruchtung der Blumen. 

 Berlin, 1793. 



