82 



Bulletin 145 



BARBERRY FAMILY. BERBERIDACEAE 



COMMON BARBERRY. Bcrbcris vuli^aris L. 



There are no native plants of this family but the common 

 barberry, originally introduced from Europe, has now become 

 so frequent an escape by roadsides and in waste places as often 

 to appear as if native. It is a shrub of six to eight feet with 

 thorny branches and bristly leaves. The younger branches have 

 a gracefully arching habit and produce in late spring an abund- 

 ance of small yellow flowers in drooping clusters followed bv 

 masses of fruit which redden beautifully in autumn and persist 

 through the winter. It will grow well on even the thinnest of 



soils. It also bears prun- 

 ing at will. These 

 characters combine to 

 make it one of the most 

 valuable of shrubs for 

 ornamental planting, es- 

 pecially for hedges or 

 close groups to exclude 

 trespassers. The berries 

 though tart are edible 

 and throughout New- 

 England are employed 

 in the concoction of 

 preserves, particularly in 

 combination with fruits 

 of milder quality, like the 

 apple. They are sometimes put in cucumber pickles. No other use 

 is made of the plant here, we believe, but the barberry has been 

 used from ancient times for medicine and dye and for tanning 

 leather. The tannin occurs in the bark. A yellow coloring 

 matter is found in the bark, more especially in that of the root, 

 the extract from which can be used for dyeing cloth or leather. 



Barberry. 

 Fruiting branch, X Vo. 



