THE BARBERRY IN IOWA 



229 



IVild Barberry in Manchester. — The history of the wild barberry 

 on the Cook farm, four miles west of Manchester and one-fourth 

 of a mile from the Hawkeye trail in Delaware county, is as follows : 

 Mr. Edward Cook bought the place twenty years ago. He found on 

 it several bushes of the common barberry. These were cut off a 

 few years later. From the cut-off bushes new clumps began to come 



Fig. 7 8. — The Johnson Barberry hedge near LeClaire, from which Uie wild 

 Barberry in that vicinity originated. Photographed by A. L. Parrman, 1918. 



up. The Cooks found that birds carried the seed to the orchard 

 and to the native timber beyond. The timber has since been re- 

 moved, leaving numerous old stumps of trees remaining. The timber 

 consisted of bur oak, black oak, black cherry and haw (Crataegus 

 mollis). There were also clumps of choke cherry (Primus virgin- 

 iana), Ribcs gracile and in low places Spircca salicifolia. The old 

 grove is now pretty closely grazed so that few shrubs remain. How- 

 ever, the large clumps of barberry are conspicuous in the wood lot. 

 It would appear that the larger clump may have been there for 

 twenty or thirty-five years. Only a few planted hedges were re- 

 I)orted to Doctor Melhus in the county, and one of these was in 

 Manchester. 



