156 Fruits and Fruit- Trees. 



conspicuous vegetable features of the Bernese Alps. 

 That it will flourish in every part of England is plainly 

 declared by the luxuriance it attains in South Lancashire 

 and in Staffordshire. 



THE BERBERY, OR BARBERRY 

 (Herberts vulgaris). 



THE Berbery counts with the currant, the gooseberry, and 

 the raspberry, completing with these, in its produce, the 

 quartette of what gardeners call " bush-fruits." Not that 

 it corresponds in value, or is even made an object of 

 cultivation for the sake alone of the fruit. The berbery 

 serves merely as an elegant addition to the list ; it can 

 easily be dispensed with ; when absent, it is not missed, 

 but whoever commands a good crop of the ripe fruit is 

 certainly fortunate. As usually seen, though not so tall 

 when wild, it is a bushy shrub, three to six feet in height, 

 with abundance of slender pale brown twigs that nearly 

 conceal the principal stem. Every part is studded with 

 very sharp prickles, from the axils of which rise the obo- 

 vate and serrated leaves, some of them singly, others in 

 clusters. In May come the flowers, individually no larger 

 than peas, but disposed in pretty racemes that hang from 

 the arching twigs like jets of gold. The odour of these 

 is powerful, and to many persons unpleasing. In due 

 time they are followed by long pendulous strings of 

 scarlet berries, shaped like grains of rye, but thrice as 



