SWISS FLOWERS. 27 



8. Berberis. — Barberry. 



{PLATE riL) 



The Barbery is well known, either with its cheerful yellow 

 blossoms, or its red coral-like berries, or perhaps in the 

 form of a pleasant preserve. Whatever may be said as to 

 the first and the last in connection with Switzerland, we can 

 speak with gratitude of its refreshing acid berries, which 

 we once found very agreeable in a walk along the rather 

 tedious Visp-Valley, where they grow in abundance, in 

 company with the cottony pods of the Vincetoxicura, or 

 Cynanchum. 



B. vulgaris (Fig. 8), with us the common, and often 

 called wild, is a shrub about six feet high. The ovate hair- 

 notched leaves grow in tufts on the branches, and have a 

 threefold thorn at the base of each tuft. The flowers are 

 yellow, with a coloured calyx, and hang in pendulous 

 clusters along the stems. Stamens six, which will, one or 

 all, curiously close round the large stigma on being touched 

 at the base. The berries are long and red. The wood i& 

 yellow beneath the bark. Hedges, woods, and waste places. 

 Mons. Bouvier says : " The berries of the Epine-Vinette, 

 the common French name of the Barberry, constitute the 

 real citron of the country. A decoction of its leaves i& 

 useful in dropsy and scorbutic complaints." 



