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BEEBERIS JAPONICA, CONCINNA, POETUNEI, ETC. 



S the following fact worthy of your notice ? On the 17th of last June I 

 gathered some berries from Berheris Japonica, and gave them to Mr. 

 Masters, whose head gardener sowed them on the same day, placing 

 them in a hothouse. In less than six weeks these berries produced 

 young seedlings, whicli are now about two inches high ; the berries 

 were planted whole, and some of them produced tbree plants each. I believe it 

 genei-aily takes a year or more to produce plants from the berries ; if so, the growth 

 in the present instance is something remarkable. In several gardens that 1 have 

 visited this vear 1 liave found B. Japonica in very poor condition; the plants stunted, 

 leaflets small, broken, and discoloured ; evidently no attention had been paid to 

 either soil or situation. I have nearly two dozen plants, all growing most luxuri- 

 antly ; one in particular has very large leaflets, some of them measuring five inches 

 by four, larger than the palm of a large hand. This success is no duubt owing to my 

 following your directions, given in the August number of 1862 of the Floral World, 

 I have used plentv of rotten dung, with sand and turfy loam, and late in the last 

 autumn placed round each plant a mulch of rather fresh stable manure, the best part 

 of which the rains washed gradually down to the roots. In fact, the soil can 

 scarcely be too rich, and I fancy that'^ nearly all the species of Berberis will thrive 

 under similar treatment. There is only oneVault that I can find with B. Japonica, 

 and that is, when placed in front of shrubberies the leaders bend forward to the 

 light, spreading the leaves out like a fan, instead of bearing them horizontally. 



I hear that B. Japonica, as it is commonly called, is a native of China, this 

 species not being known in Japan. I find it called in Johnson's "Gardener's Dic- 

 tionary " Beali planifolia. Mr. Standish has a new Berberis which is really a 

 native of Japan ; he has not yet sent out any of the young plants, nor is the species 

 even named. 



Do you know B. steno-phylla ? I bought a plant from Mr. Bull, of Chelsea, last 

 spring, and it has since made a shoot nearly four feet in length, and thicker than 

 the main stem. In this rapidity of growth stenophylla seems to take after its 

 parent Darwinii, a plant of which in my garden has this summer sent up a very 

 stout shoot upwards of five feet in height. I find it very difl[icult to procure some oi 

 the rarer species of Berberis. I applied to the nurserymen recommended by you in 

 the Septeniber number, and find that I can obtain B. Jamesonii from one of them, 

 but for B. macrophijlla I must send all the way to Exeter. One firm wrote to say 

 tliat they once cult"^ivated all the species, but at last throw them away, as there w^as 

 no demand for them. 



1 was looking at one of my plants of 5. concimia (Himalaya) this morning, and 

 was surprised to find some fe'w beriies on it, and still more surprised to find them 

 scarlet. With the exce])tion of B. vulgaris, I believe all the Berberries have pur- 

 ple fruit; if so, the variety is worth noticing. I inclose a leaf and berries of B. 

 concinna, also a leaf and berries of B. vulgaris, in order that ycu may compare 

 thi m without being put to the trouble of sending into your garden. 



I also inclose tlie old and new leaves of a Berberis called B. m7^w, which 1 

 received this morning from Messrs. Lucombe and Pince, of Exeter. It is evidently 

 only a variety of ^. aquifolium, but a very marked one, in the highly varuished-like 

 appearance ol the old leaves, and in the rich bioiize of the young leaves. I have 

 ordered one, as I feel almost certain that it will propagate easily by suckers, like aqui- 

 folium, and prove a useful variety in the shrubbery. 



In Aiigust, 1862, you wrote in Elor.u. World with regard to B. Fortunei, "I 

 have never seen it in bloom." Inclosed is a specimen of the first plant that I have 

 Been in bloom, by which yon will observe that the flowers are produced in upright 

 spikes. The probability is, that since you wrote the above you have seen plenty of 

 these plants in bloom, and my communication turn out to be rather too late. I liave 

 now succeeded in procuring every species of evergreen Berberis, with the exception 

 of B. trifurca. 1 had to send to Exeter for B. macrophylla. J- J- 



[We liave been greatly interested in our correspondent's success in collecting and 

 cultivating the species of Berberis, the result, he informs us, of a passion aioused by 

 the perusal of an article on the subject in the Floral World of August, 1862. We 

 have many times seen the flowers of B. Fortunei since 1862, but find that it is only as 



