n6 



BERBERIDE^E. 



[CLASS 



Type Common Barberry (Berleris vulgaris). 



A pale-green deciduous spinous shrub, with fascicled 

 unifoliolate leaves and racemose yellow flowers. (The 

 only British species of the Family.) 



The leaves of this Order belong to the compound 

 type. In Berberis aquifolium, common in shrubberies, 

 they are unequally pinnate, but in most of the species of 

 Barberry the terminal leaflet only is developed, so that 

 the leaf appears simple. An articulation in the short 

 petiole betrays its true character. Several species of 

 this Order, including one (Epimeditim alpimini) occa- 

 sionally found in wild places in England, but not native, 

 are low herbs, with ternately divided leaves. 



OBSERVE the spines on a vigorous shoot of Barberry, 

 bearing fascicles of leaves (leafy branches with unde- 

 veloped internodes) in their axils. If you trace these 

 spines to the bottom of the shoot you will perceive that 

 they pass into leaves, showing that the spines are leaves 

 in an "arrested" condition: the trimerous arrangement 

 of the parts of the flower, exceptional amongst Dicoty- 

 ledons : the stamens opposite to the petals, because both 

 stamens and petals are in 2 whorls of 3 each, the stamens 

 of the outer whorl alternating with the 3 petals of the 

 inner whorl, consequently opposite to the 3 petals of the 

 outer whorl; the 3 inner stamens being in like manner 

 opposite to the 3 inner petals : the irritability of the 

 stamens; if touched at the base, on the inner side, with 



