P^ONIA. BERBERIDACE.E. 27 



BERBERIS . 



cated, persistent. Petals 5-10 or more, situated with the sta- 

 mens on the fleshy perigynous disk that is adnate to the sepals 

 or concave receptacle. Stamens numerous. Carpels few be- 

 coming coriaceous many-seeded follicles. Style short or none. 

 Seeds anatropous, oval or oblong, naked at base or the very 

 short fleshy funiculus cupulate; embryo straight or slightly 

 arcuate. 



P. Brownii Doug, in Hook. Fl. i, 27. Glabrous and glaucous, stems 

 ascending or at length decumbent, 1-2 feet long: leaves thick, leaf- 

 lets ternately dissected into oblong or linear lobes; sepals green, mostly 

 unequal: petals scarcely larger than the sepals, thick and leathery, dark 

 dull red: follicles oblong, an inch or more long: seeds round or oblong 2 

 lines in diameter, black and shining. Stony hillsides, Brit. Columbia 

 to California. 



ORDER IT. . BERBERIDACE.E Endl. Gen. 851. 



Herbs rr shrubs with compound or divided leaves without 

 stipules and perfect, hypogynous flowers. Bracts sepals petals 

 and stamens 6 each ( sepals and petals wanting, and stamens 9 

 or more in Achlys): Anthers 2 celled opening by uplifted 

 valves that are hiiiged at the top. Calyx and corolla imbricated 

 in the bud, deciduous, both usually colored Pistil 1, of a 

 single carpel. Style short or none. Seeds anatropous, with 

 small or minute embryo in firm -fleshy or horny albumen. 



* Flowers complete : stamens 6, mostly short. 



1 Berberis. Shrubs with rigid oddpinnate leaves ; flowers yellow, in 

 clustered racemes: fruit a few-seeded berry. 



2 Yancouveria. Herbs with ternately compound leaves: flowers white or 

 yellow in a panicle: fruit a follicle. 



* * Flowers without sepals or petals : stamens 9 or more. 

 3. Achlys. Flowers spicate on a scape, without bracts, sepals or petals. 

 Herbs w r ith 3-parted leaves. 



1 BERBERLS, Tourn. Inst. 614, t. 385, L. Gen. n. 442. 



Smooth shrubs with yellow wood, pinnate leaves, yellow flow- 

 ers in clustered bracketed racemes, and oblong or globose, acid, 

 dark blue berries. Sepals 6, petal-like, with 6 closely appressed 

 bractlets in 2 rows. Petals 6, opposite the sepals, usually 2-gland- 

 ular at base. Stamens 6, opposite the petals. Stigma peltate. 

 Fruit a 1 -celled berry, with 1-3 seeds. Ours all of 



MAHONIA T. & G. Fl. i, 50. Leaves evergreen, all e volute, 

 (none reduced to spines) and 3- toseveral-foliolate ; petioles artic- 

 ulated at the insertion of the leaflets : leaflets thick, coriaceous, 

 spiny-toothed : filaments usually 2-toothed at the summit. 

 * Leaflets pinnately veined. 



B. pnmila Greene Pitt, ii, 162. A few inches to a foot high, stout and 

 rigid, erect from the base: leaves very thick-coriaceous: leaflets 1-5, the 

 terminal one round-ovate, the lateral ones obliquely ovate, all coarsely 

 toothed, the teeth rigidly spinescent, conspicuously reticulate-veined on 

 both faces, pale and glaucous beneath, deep but dull green and glauces- 



