218 JOURNAL OF THE ARNOLD ARBORETUM [vol. iv 



This species has been in cultivation for a long time. It was first men- 

 tioned by Desfontaines in 1804 without a description as B. sinensis from 

 the Jardin des Plantes. Poiret described it first in 1808 as B. chinensis. 

 The form described by Poiret seems to be the same as that figured by 

 Loiseleur-Deslongschamps in 1824; Hooker's plate, too, agrees well with 

 it, but the flowers are painted rather pale and pure yellow while the color 

 is deep-yellow with reddish outer sepals on Loiseleur's plate. Spach 

 (Hist. Veg. vin. 42 [1839]) says: "Fleurs dun jaune vif. Sepals souvent 

 laves de rouge en dessous." He also well describes the variability of 

 the inflorescence, saying: "Grappes longues de 1 pouce a 4 pouces, tantot 

 sessiles ou sousessiles, tantot plus ou moins longuement pedonculees, 

 assez Inches, ou rarement un peu denses. . . ." As to the color and size 

 of the fruits the statements differ somewhat; Poiret says: "Les fruits sont 

 des baies d'un rouge un peu jaunatre, ovales, obtuses, un peu retrecies 

 k leur base, legerement ombiliquees a leur sommet, plus petit que colics 

 du berberis vulgaris." Loiseleur states: "Le fruit est une baie ovale rouge, 

 d'un rouge fonce. . . ." Spach describes the berries "d'un pourpre 

 plus ou moins fonce, du volume de celles du Berberis comnuiii." Schra- 

 der who had before him the true plant says that the berries are'Vcrasinae," 

 which is a true description of the color according to my own observations. 

 One might also say atrosanguincac or plunic-red. The color of the fruits 

 is, however, somewhat different according to its condition of ripeness. 



As to the different synonyms mentioned above the following is to be 

 said. On the plate of Guimpel the petals arc entire, and Koch et Bouche 

 (1. c.) also describe the petals of B. Guimpelii as "rotundata integerrima." 

 Of its relationship the authors say: " B. sinensis Desf. frutice elatiore ramis 

 erectis sulcatis ct racemis erect is discrepat. Nostrae proxima est B. 

 spathulata Sehr. (B. canadensis Tausch) quae habitu elatiore distinguitur." 

 In his Dendrology Koch, however, says that the flowers are "langgestielt 

 bisweilen zu 2 und 3 an einem verlangerten, allgemeinen Stiel eine iiber- 

 hangende Traube bildend" a very different statement from " racemis 

 erectis/' Of Schrader's B. spathulata I already pointed out in 1007 

 that it is nothing else than B. chinensis. Schrader describes the branchlets 

 as "ferrugineo-castanei," they become grayish very soon. The only peculiar 

 feature of B. Guimpelii would be the entire petals but I suppose that is a 

 wrong statement or that that condition occurs only occasionally. The 

 specimens distributed by Koehne (Herb. Dcndr. no. 217) who certainly was 

 well acquainted with Koch's plant has distinctly emarginate petals. His 

 specimen with "racemis insolito abbreviatis, qui in stirpibus junioribus 

 saepe occurrere videntur" is a good proof of the variability of the in- 

 florescences of which the lowermost pedicels sometimes are almost sub- 

 paniculate as it is well indicated on Guimpel's plate. In the Herbarium 

 of Copenhagen I found a plant of which the inflorescences were rather 

 distinctly paniculate in their lower part, but otherwise I could not detect 

 any hybrid influence of another species. Unfortunately the origin of this 

 plant is not known. 



