14 BERBERIDACEiE. 



Bcrbcris tinctoria Leschenault ; F.B.Li IIO, included 

 in B. aristata DC. ; IV 4 * ; common Nilgiri Barberry. 

 A shrub, but very variable in size and form ; in the open 

 often only 2 or 3 feet high, but in a shola sometimes 

 reaching 15 feet with stem as thick as one's arm and long 

 scandent branches bearing numerous slender leafy twigs ; 

 wood very tough, bright yellow in colour. Leafy twigs 

 green or purple, grooved and angular, studded with triple 

 spines in the axils of which are tufts of leaves. Leaves 

 green or when young purplish, obovate, entire or with a 

 few spiny teeth, glabrous, I to 2^ inches. Racemes of 

 flowers drooping, sometimes branched ; pedicels slender. 

 Sepals six or seven, the three inner larger and spread- 

 ing. Petals six erect, roundish, notched. Stamens six ; 

 anthers broad. Berry sausage-shaped when young, even- 

 tually top-shaped, Vshy Ye inch, purplish red, turning to 

 a dark-blue with glaucous bloom, with the dry style and 

 large round stigma still attached, t. 10 & 11. Wight 

 111. t. 8. 



Distinguished from B. aristata DC. by the slender drooping pedicels 

 and the shape of the fruit. 



By road-sides, on the edges of and inside sholas ; quite 

 common. Nilgiris : Ootacamund, Pykara, Kotagiri. Pulneys : 

 Kodaikanal downs. Fyson 302, 1034, 2232, 2587. Bourne 475. 



Schneider in Bull : de L'Herbier Boissier, Ser. 2. 5. 1905, p. 432 divides 

 the Nilgiri specimens into three species, B. tinctoria, B. wightiana, and 

 B. ceylanica, by the colour and surface of the uader side of the leaves, the 

 hairiness of the twigs, and the inflorescence. I am not, however, able to 

 distinguish these. 



Mahonia Icschenaultii Takeda (Berberis leschenaultii 

 Wallich Cat. 1479 ; F.B.I, i 109 included in B. nepalen- 

 sis Spr., IV * I ; the Holly-leaf Barberry. Stem slender 

 or stout, sometimes almost a tree with rough, greyish- 

 brown, corky, bark ; branches slender. Leaves in circles 

 at the ends of the branches, 6 to 18 inches long, pinnate 

 with two filiform stipules, J^ to J4 inch. Leaflets five to 

 twenty-five in pairs, with one terminal, increasing in size 



