CniNliSE riNNATED BEKBERRIES. 225 



XX. — Chinese pinnated Berberries. By Robert Fortune. 



In tlie earlier volumes of this Journal there are several notes 

 of mine on Chinese plants inti-otiuced by the Horticultural Society 

 from 1843 to 1846. Some of the plants noticed then were almost 

 unknown to cultivators in tliis country, and it was difficult to 

 convince the learned in sucli matters that they were of much 

 importance. Time, however, often does what nothing else can do. 

 After three more years of travel in the far East, I return to find 

 many of my Chinese pets in high favour, and occupying tlie places 

 in our gardens which they so richly merit. It is unnecessary now 

 to write of the beauty of such plants as Dieljjtra spectabilis, 

 Weigela rosea, Forsythia viridissima, Jasminum nudijiorum, 

 Spircea primifolia jjlena, and many others which need not be 

 mentioned. Leaving these to work their own way^ in tlie world, 

 I must now introduce to notice some strangers of no less interest 

 and beauty. Amongst the most striking of these are tiiree species 

 of evergreen pinnated-leaved Berberries, discovered in the north 

 of China. 



1. Serberis Bealei. 



The first was met with in tlie autumn of 1848. I was then 

 travelling in the district of Ilwuycliow, a place famed for its 

 green teas, and which furnishes nearly all tlie finest kinds 

 which are exported to England and America. The discovery is 

 described in my journal as follows : — " Having taken a survey 

 of the place [an old garden], we were on our way out, when an 

 e.xtraordinary^ plant growing in a secluded part of the garden met 

 my eye. When I got near it I found that it was a very fine ever- 

 green Berberis, belonging to the section of Mahonias, and having 

 of course pinnated leaves. Each leaflet was as large as the leaf 

 of our English holly, spiny, and of a fine dark, shining green 

 colour. The shrub was about eight feet high, much branched, 

 and far surpassed in beauty all the other known species of 

 Mahonia." AYhen dried leaves of this plant reached England it 

 was supposed to be identical with Thunberg's Ilex japonica, of 

 which there is a figure in his ' Icones Plantarura Japonicarum,' 

 and which is no doubt a Berberis, and not an Ilex. After a care- 

 ful examination, I have come to the conclusion that the Chinese 

 plant is really distinct from Thunberg's ; and I therefore pro- 

 pose to retain the name of Berberis Becdei, whicli I gave it in 

 the ' Gardeners' Chronicle ' for 1849. I have no doubt that it is 

 quite as hardy as an English holly ; and, if it proves so, it Avill be 

 one of the noblest Evergreen bushes of which our gardens can 

 boast. 



VO-L. vn. R 



