I! K K 



w> mean* shining, and of a paler green than several of the 

 other*. It U rather too delicate to bear the winters of the 

 neighbourhood of London without some protection ; but it 

 would, in all probabilitv, be perfectly hardy in the south- 

 western parts of Great Britain. It is readily known by the 

 generally rounded appearance of its clusters of flowers, 

 luch appear in June. Figured in the Botanical Register, 

 vol. ix. plate 702, under the name of Ji. pinnata. 



Makonia iltivrstfolia of the gardens seems to be the same 

 as this : and the story of its having been brought from 

 Monte Video is probablv not true. 



17. Berberis aquifutitan (holly-leaved ash barberry). 

 Leaflets ovate-lanceolate, flat, deeply and regularly toothed, 

 remarkably shining ; flowers in long narrow racemes ; stem 

 tall and wooay. A native of North-west America from 

 New Albion to Nootka Sound, growing in woods, where it 

 forms a thick and rich underwood. It has been introduced 

 to this country of late years, and is perhaps the handsomest 

 hardy evergreen we yet possess. Its foliage is of a rich 

 iK'i'p shining green, becoming purple in the winter; it bears 

 fiuit in some abundance, which consists of clusters of 

 roundish black berries, having their surface covered with a 

 rich violet bloom. They have no merit as fruit,, but would 

 probably be greedily sought by game, for the protection ol 

 which in coverts this species seems well adapted, if it could 

 only be obtained in sufficient quantity. The difficulty ol 

 propagating it has hitherto made it a scarce plant ; but 

 seeds might be easily obtained from the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany's settlements in North-west America. It most resem- 

 bles B. faticularit, from which its large shining leaves al 

 once distinguish it ; and it is perfectly hardy, wlm-h that 

 species is not. Flowers in May and June ; it has been 

 figured in the Botanical Register, vol. xvii. plate 1425. 



18. Btrbrris repent (creeping ash-barberry). Leaflets 

 few, somewhat glaucous, especially on the under side, ob- 

 long, when old rounded at the point, with shallow toothings ; 

 flower* in crowded, compound, erect racemes; stem very 

 dwarf; runs at the root. Found wild on the east side of 

 the rocky mountains of North America, and perfectly hardy 

 in our gardens. Its stems do not grow abo e ix or nine 

 inches high, and are loaded with a profusion of rich yellow 

 flowers, which constitute the principal beauty of the species. 

 Its fruit is unknown. A good figure of it has been pub- 

 lished iu the Botanical Register, vol. xiv. plate 1 1 76. No- 

 thing can be more unlike B. aquifolium than this is, al- 

 though the two have occasionally been most unaccountably 

 confounded. 



19. Berberis glumacea (long-leaved ash-barberry). Leaf- 

 lets numerous, ovate-lanceolate, coarsely toothed, of a dul! 

 glaucous green ; flowers in long, narrow, erect racemes ; 

 stem very dwarf; scales of the leaf and ilower-buds still 

 and glumaceous. A native of North west America, prow- 

 ing in shady grassy places in woods. The stem of this 

 species does not grow more than six or eight inches hiiili 

 and is, in fact, shorter than its leaves, which con 

 about six pairs with an odd one, and are jointed at every 

 pair of leaflets in the manner of a bamboo stem. The fruit 

 u roundish and insipid, of a fine glaucous purple. This is 

 lets rare than H. aijuifulium, and is an object of curiosity 

 more than of utility. It loves to grow in a shaded Ame- 

 rican border, where it is protected from the fiercer rays ol 

 the tun. It is figured in the Botanical Register, vol. .xvii 

 plate 1426. Btrberis, or Mahonia nervoea, is another name 

 for this. 



In addition to these four beautiful species there are the 

 following, which still remain to be introduced to this coun- 

 try : Herberts Leichennultii (the B. acanthi/alia of some), 

 a fine pinnated plant with round black fruit, found on the 

 Nilgbvrry mountains of India at the elevation of 8000 feet. 

 Rtrberii ft'apaltnsis, a native of the mountains of the north 

 of India, where, according to Mr. Koyle, it grows twelve 

 feet high in shady place*, at 5000 and 6000 feet of eleva- 

 tion: this is a noble species, and ought to be obtained from 

 India at any cost, a* it would, in all probability, succeed in 

 this climate. Herberts tragacanthoides, with not more 

 than one or two pairs of leaflets, found along the banks of 

 the river Kur, near Tiflis ; and Berberis caragana-folia, a 

 It, HI. o plant very like the last: both the latter have the 

 points of the leave* hardened into ipines. 



BERBERS. BREBBE'R (Berber* is nothing else than 

 Barlbra; Baraber* being the Arabic form of the plural 

 from Berber), the name given by the Arab* to the ori- 

 ginal inhabitant* of North Africa, which corresponds 



B K H 



to the Libyan* of Herodotus, who were the aborigines 

 of the north, and by him distinguished from the Ethi- 

 opian* to the south, and from the Greeks and Phoeni- 

 cians who had settled on the northern coast The people, 

 However, to whom the name of Berber* is now generally 

 applied, namely the inhabitants of the whole Atlas range 

 from the Atlantic coa.it of Marocco to the shores of the gulf 

 of Cabe* or little Syrtis, call themselves in their own lan- 

 guage* Amasirgh, or Tamxirgbt, and are not acquainted 

 with the name of Berber, which appear* to have been 

 first used by the Arab writers in the second century of 

 the Hegira (eighth century of our a?ra), after the Moham- 

 medan conquest of North Africa and of Spain. Previous 

 to this the Arabs used to call the inhabitants of Mauri- 

 tania A'djetn, or mosta'djem, ' strangers,' ' who did not 

 speak Arabick.' (Graberg di Hemsii, Specchio geografico e 

 ttatiitico delt Impero di Marocco, Genoa, 1834.) -In 

 the council of Toledo, C94 A. u., a great number of Jew* 

 were ordered to leave Spain under the charge of holding 

 treasonable correspondence with their brethren of Africa 

 known by the name of Pilistins, who were settled in great 

 numbers among the Amazirghs and the Moors. Gru- 

 berg thinks that the more civilized Jews of Spain may 

 have used the word barboros in speaking of their neigh- 

 bours across the Straits, out of which word the Arab 

 writers of Spain in the following century muy have formed 

 the word berber or Juhud el berber, ' barbarian Jew 

 The Arabian historians and geographers, however, have 

 given various and more fanciful explanations of the word 

 berber. Some derive it from Bar, desert, others from the 

 word 'bcrberna,' which signifies a murmuring, indistinct 

 noise, for such the language of the North African natives 

 sounded to the ears of the Arabs. (Leo Africanus, Africa 

 desciiptio, and Shehabeddin, in his Ketab Adjitman, 

 written a\wut 1450 ; the latter is quoted by Kilter, Afrika, 

 s. 34.) One of the antient and principal tribes of the 

 Amazirghs was called Berani, or sons of Ber, a <!'.-< vmlant 

 of Madzigh, the progenitor of the whole race. (Ibu Khal- 

 dun, History of the Berbers, written about 1370.) Others 

 say that Ber was the son of Kis and grandson of A'ilam, 

 ono of the shepherd kings of Egypt. In the antient Roman 

 geography of Mauritania wo find a tribe called Verves in 

 the north-eastern part of Tingitana, near the western bank 

 ojf the Molochat river, and farther south beyond the Sehti 

 river were the Vcrbico) and the Noctiberes. According to 

 Graberg the origin of the word Berber might be traced to 

 those, as the ft and the care interchangeable letters. Whe- 

 ther, therefore, the word Berber is of indigenous, or Arabic, 

 or Greek and Roman origin is still a matter of doubt It 

 has been, howevor, generally employed by the Arabian 

 writers, when speaking of the North African aborigines. 

 Among the earliest of these writers who speak of the Ber- 

 bers, we find Hesham ben Mohammed al Khelebi, who lived 

 in the beginning of the 9th century, Kaid Ai'ad Ben Musa, 

 who died about 056, and Abul Kasem Mohammed Ibn 

 Hhiiukal, who wrote about 970. 



With regard to the origin of the Berbers, we find it like- 

 wise involved in obscurity. Tradition among themselves, as 

 well as the accounts of the Arabian writers who have written 

 concerning them, seem to point to the land of Canaan as the 

 country they came from. Ahmed el Fasi, in his Kutab cl 

 (liammar, says that the Berbers are a colony of Philistines 

 who took refuge in Africa after David had killed Gialout or 

 Goliath (Herbelot, art. Gialout). Others say that they are the 

 de.-ivndants of the Caiiaanitcs and Aroalekiles driven from 

 .nc by Joshua. There is now a tribe of Berbers near 

 Mequinez called Ait Amor, said to be the descendants of 

 the Amorites. Procopius (Vandalicorura, II.) says that 

 the Gergashites, Jebusites, and other nations being drm-n 

 out of Palestine by Joshua, built cities in Libya, and occu- 

 pied the country as far as the Straits of Gibraltar ; and he 

 also asserts that in his time there were at Tangier two 

 marble columns with inscription* in the Phoenician lan- 

 guage, to the following import : We fly from the robber 

 Joshua, the son of Nun.' But Procopius also says that there 

 were other nations settled in Libya before the arrival of 

 these strangers. Though the statement of Procopius may 

 bo worth little, it serves at least to show that the tradi- 

 tion of the old relationship between the Canaanites and 

 the natives of North Africa existed in his time. Graberg, 

 it controverting the tradition of the Canaanile and 

 Philistine emigrations, thinks that the Amazirgh rare 

 existed in North Africa previous to the age of Jushua, and 



