82 



LAURACEAE 



Distribution. — The Common Barberry is a native of Europe 

 and Asia, where it is widely used as a decorative shrub. It was 

 brought to New England by early colonists and later was 



FIG. 16 

 Berberis vulgaris 



planted throughout the northeastern states. The berries are at- 

 tractive to birds, which scattered seeds so extensively that the 

 shrub became an established, naturalized species. However, 

 it is now doomed to extinction, through the efforts of the Bar- 

 berry Eradication campaign, which proposes, by destroying it, 

 to remove one of the hosts of black stem rust. 



LAURACEAE 



The Laurel Family 



The laurel family consists of aromatic shrubs or trees with 

 alternate, non-stipulate, and usually glandular-punctate leaves. 

 The monoecious flowers have 4 to 10, most often 6, sepals ar- 

 ranged in two series, but no petals. The stamens, more numer- 

 ous than the sepals, are reduced in the pistillate flowers. In 

 pistillate flowers, the pistils are solitary and the ovary is 1- 

 celled; the fruit is a drupe which contains a solitary seed. 



