THE BARBERRY IN IOWA 199 



introduction of European barberry in Iowa dates back to 1851. At 

 this time John Evans, according to his son, Oliver Evans, pur- 

 :hascd from Elhvanger and Barry, of Rochester, New York, a ship- 

 ment of European barberry. These plants were first planted at 

 Davenport in a small garden. Six years later Mr. Evans purchased 

 1 farm at Pleasant \'alley and transplanted some of his bar- 

 berries into a hedge at this place. From this hedge in the early 

 seventies, Mv. Samuel Lorton, of the Nichols and Lorton Nursery 

 located at Davenport, secured seed for propagation. Later this 

 liedge served as a source of seed for many people interested in 

 securing barberries." 



Mr. J. J. Wilson, in an interview in the Davenport Democrat,'^ 

 Jtates that "John Evans is said to have imported his first stock from 

 Rochester, New York, in 1850." I believe it is more likely that these 

 plants were starred from seed rather than from nursery stock. 



EUwanger & Barry in a letter to the writer, state : "Replying to 

 y'ours of the eleventh, we find offered in our catalogue for 1867 the 

 rollowing barberries : vulgaris, purpurea, canadensis, white fruited, 

 .iolet fruited and Nepal fruited." 



A few large bushes of the common barberry were observed by me 

 on the Lowry place near Montpelier in Muscatine county. Mr. 

 Lowry stated that the bush was there as long as he could remember. 

 Mr. Samuel Merry in 1839 purchased this land now owned by Mr. 

 Lowry. ^* His grandson, Samuel Hughes, who now lives at Musca- 

 tine at the age of 68 years, states that Dr. Merry moved from St. 

 Louis to his farm at Montpelier in 1842 and gave much of his time 

 in his old age to orcharding and to accumulating in his garden vari- 

 ous kinds of shrubbery. On one of his visits to St. Louis, Dr. Merry 

 brought back among his nursery stock a collection it is thought of the 

 European barberry. The exact date of this introduction is not 

 known, but the facts at hand suggest that it must have been in the 

 forties. He said the barberry might have been there early in the 

 last century. Walton, ^^ in Scraps of Muscatine History, states that 

 one Nye landed at the mouth of Pine creek in 1834 and that the 

 first post office and store in Muscatine county were located at Mont- 

 pelier in 1838. One would hardly suppose that the barberry had 

 been planted at that point in 1838 or for some years later. F. D. 

 Lowry was born in Muscatine in 1868. His father, W. E. Lowry, 

 moved to Muscatine in 1849 and to Montpelier later. The exact 



isDavenport Democrat, Dec. 11, 1918. 



"I am told that Mr. Merry (Lowry) was a brother of Mr Lowry, Sr. He 

 said he would not change his name for anyone. 

 isScraps of Muscatine History, 17. 



