Berberis. BERBERIDACE^. 67 



Ovary ovoid : subulate sliort style with iutrorse stigma. Seeds stipitate on their thickened 

 clavate funiculi, globose, with a fleshy and at length pulpy coat ; the very hard albumen 

 deeply umbilicate at the hilum. Embryo minute at the centre. 



* * * Anomalous Herbs, with no tioral envelopes, and dry indehiscent fruit one-seeded 

 from the base. 



3. ACHLYS. Stamens 6 to 12; filaments elongated, filiform, or the outer dilated upward: 

 anthers globose-didymous. Ovary ovoid, surmounted by a broad sessile stigma. 0\'ule 

 solitary. Fruit at first somewhat fleshy, at length dry and coriaceous, lunate-incurved, dor- 

 sally convex and carinate, ventrally excavated each side of the fleshy salient suture or ventral 

 appendage. Embryo minute. Flowers spicate. 



* * * * Perennial herbs : ovary with few or many ovules on the lateral placenta. 



•ir- Forming a dry and dehiscent fruit : seeds laterally arillate : embryo minute : leaves 

 compound. 



4. VANCOUVERIA. Sepals 6 in two series, obovate, petaloid, reflexed, and below them 

 6 or 9 calicine bracts in 2 or 3 series. Petals 6, nectariform and unguiculate, i. e. a ligulate 

 claw bearing a much shorter cucullate nectariferous lamina. Stamens 6 : anthers elongated- 

 oblong, the connective produced into a pointed tip. Ovary 2-9-ovulate; style slender; 

 stigma terminal, truncate and scarious-cupulate. Follicle oblong, membranaceous, unequally 

 2-valved, in the manner of Epimediuin (which has dimerous flowers and sessile petals or 

 nectaries). Seeds arcuate, with an ample lateral arillus. Leaves triternate. 



5. JEFFERSONIA. Sepals 4, rarely 3 or 5, linear-oblong, petaloid, caducous. Petals 

 8 in two series, oblong, plane, larger than the sepals. Stamens 8 ; anthers oblong-linear, 

 longer than the filaments. Ovary ovoid, slightly stipitate, apex contracted into a short style 

 with terminal 2-lobed stigma. Ovules and seeds numerous and horizontal in several rows 

 on the broad placenta. Arillus small and laciniate. Fruit obovate, transversely (or 

 obliquely) dehiscent by a slit. Leaves 2-foliolate or 2-lobed. 



-t— -)— Fruit a berry : embryo comparatively large : anthers oblong, longer than the fila- 

 ments : rootstocks producing sterile plants of a single large and long-stalked leaf and 

 flowering plants of two leaves ; leaves undivided but cleft and peltate. 



6. DIPHYLLEIA. Sepals 6 in two series (or the three outer and smaller more herbaceous 

 ones bracts), caducous. Petals 6, obovate, plane and larger, spreading. Stamens 6. Ovary 

 5-6-ovulate toward the base of the placenta : style very short : stigma terminal, depressed, 

 emargiuate. Berry globular, somewhat gilibous, few-seeded. Seeds oblong, naked (not 

 arillate). 



7. PODOPHYLLUM. Bracts 3, small and green, very early caducous. Sepals 6 in two 

 series, broad and thin, partly herbaceous, caducous. Petals 6 to 9, rounded-obovate, spread- 

 ing. Stamens as many or twice as many as the petals, or more ; anthers not with uplifted 

 valves ! Ovary ovoid, crowned with a large and sessile fungoid-lobulate stigma. Ovules 

 and seeds vei-y numerous in several rows covering the very broad ventral placenta; the seeds 

 at length immersed each in a pulpy arillus or arilliform outgrowth of tlie placenta. Berry 

 large. In monstrosity 2 or 3 carpels ! 



1. BERBERIS, Tourn, Barberry or Berberry. (Arabic name.) — 

 Widely distributed genus of sbrubs ; the inner bark and wood yellow and charged 

 with a bitter principle (berberine). Leaves or leaflets spinulose- or ciliate-den- 

 tate, or some converted into persistent spines. Flowers small, yellow, mostly in 

 racemes, produced in .spring or early summer, heavy scented. Filaments sensi- 

 tive, springing forward upon a touch at base inside. — Inst. 614, t. 385 ; L. Gen. 

 no. 267. 



§ 1. True Berberis. Leaves of primary axes transformed into persistent 

 and simple or triple spines ; those of the foliage in fascicles from the axils, in 



