BERBERIDACEiE. 13 



long, thick and concave. Stamens not separate, but 



combined into a solid column, 1/20 inch high, expanded 



at the top round which the anthers open all in one line, 



horizontally. Ovary flowers similar, with one carpel 



only. Fruit a red glabrous drupe 1/5 to % inch ; the 



stone inside horse-shoe-shaped with tubercled ridges 



along the back and hollow sides. Seed inside annular 



with longitudinal cotyledons, t. 9. Wight Ic. t. 939 



Sp. Nilg. t. ; (Clyphea). 



A lowland plant reaching the lower limits of our area, 

 Wellington ! Very occasionally at higher levels : — e.g., on the 

 exposed top of hill north of Vengadu, on the edge of the 

 plateau at 7,200 feet ! Fyson 2684. 



BERBERIDACE/E. f.b.i. 6. 



BERBERIS and MAHONIA the only genera here, as in 

 Europe, of this family are distinguished by their yellow 

 globular flowers, of rounded sepals and petals in four 

 circles of three each ; their anther lobes opening, not 

 by slits as in nearly all other families but by large 

 lateral flaps ; and the ovary of one carpel only, which in 

 fruit becomes fleshy and has one or more seeds. 



The family is almost confined to the north temperate regions 

 of Asia and America, being absent from Africa, south of 

 Algeria, Australia, and the Pacific islands, and from all but the 

 highest mountains of South America. There are forty-nine 

 genera, and some 140 species in the tribe Berberece, and most 

 of these occur on the Pacific coasts of North America and 

 northern Asia. 



In Europe the best known species of Berberis is B. vulgaris Z., the 



common Barberry or Pipperidge, a hedge-row shrub, which was much 



commoner before the discovery that it harboured the Rust-disease of wheat. 



But several introduced species are common in gardens, as also of Mahonia. 



Berberis is an old Arabic name. 



Leaves simple, in bunches just above a three-pronged spine ; 



the common Barberry berberis. 



Leaves pinnate, radiating usually from the top of the stem ; 



leaflets prickly like Holly mahonia. 



