XXXVIII. THE COMMON BARBERRY. 521 



yellow coloring matter. The fruit, leaves and young shoots 

 contain a great deal of oxalic acid ; the bark of the root is bitter 

 and astringent. 



Many of the species are cultivated in the gardens of Europe 

 for the beauty of their flowers and foliage. Of these the most 

 valuable are the Chinese, the Emarginate-leaved, the Nepaul, 

 and two beautiful evergreen species, with compound leaves, na- 

 tives of Oregon, and brought thence by Lewis and Clark, which 

 would doubtless flourish in our climate. These were separated 

 from the barberry, by Nuttall, under the name of Mahbnia. A 

 third, more beautiful than all, comes from the mountains of 

 California. 



All the species throw up numerous suckers, by means of which 

 they may be readily propagated, as they may also by seed. 



The Common Barberry. B. vulgaris. L. 

 Figured in Audubon's Birds, II, Plate 188. 



Every one, who is an observer of nature, must have been 

 struck, in June, with the beauty of the arching upper shoots of 

 the barberry, springing from a mass of rich green, and sustain- 

 ing numerous, pendent racemes of splendid yellow flowers. It 

 is hardly less attractive when its blossoms have been succeeded 

 by clusters of scarlet fruit. 



The barberry is a bush of usually four or five, but often seven 

 or eight feet in height, and two or three inches in diameter, with 

 a whitish or light-gray, shining bark on the recent shoots, and 

 a much darker gray on the old stems. The principal stem is 

 upright and very much branched towards the top. It is armed 

 with single or sometimes triple spines, in the axil of many of 

 which, at intervals of an inch or more, are tufts of leaves, from 

 the centre of some of which issues a raceme of flowers. The 

 leaves are inversely ovate, with numerous, bristly, soft serra- 

 tures. It flowers in May and June, and the scarlet berries ripen 

 in autumn, but often remain on the plant through the winter. 

 The roots are very long and crooked, and covered with a 

 wrinkled bark ; the wood within is of a bright orange or yellow, 

 and very soft. The wood of the stem is also yellow ; it is hard 

 and brittle, and little used, in this country, except in dyeing 

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