i. j 



CLASS VI. 

 HEXAN'DRIA. 6 STAMENS (equal) 



ORDER I. 

 MONOGYN'IA. 1 PISTIL. 



GENUS I. BERBE'RIS. LINN. Barberry. 



Nat. Ord. BEUIJEIU'DE.E. VENT. 



GEN. CHAR. Calyx of six coloured concave pieces, the outer ones 

 scaly. Petals six, each with two glands at the base. Fruit a 

 two or three seeded fleshy berry i Name, Berberys, according to 

 du Theis, is the common Arabic name of the fruit of this plant. 

 1. B. vulga'ris, Linn. (Fig. 525.) Common Barberry. Spines three- 

 cleft ; leaves obovate oblong, with bristly serratures ; racemes pendu- 

 lous, many flowered ; petals entire. 



English Botany, t. 49. English Flora, vol. ii. p. 184. Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 157. Lindley, Synopsis, p. 14. 



A shrub, from four to six feet high, with slender angular upright 

 stems, clothed with a pale grey smoothish bark ; the wood yellow, 

 brittle. Spines alternate, stout, straight, three-cleft, dilated at the 

 base, and from their- axis arise the fascicule of leaves and the (lowers. 

 Leaves obovate, oblong, tapering into a footstalk, of a yellowish green 

 and smooth above, a pale glaucous green beneath, smooth or scattered 

 over with hairs, and with a prominent mid-rib and reticulated veins, 

 the margins serrato-ciliated, with pale bristles pointed forwards. In- 

 florescence a stalked axillary raceme, of numerous pale yellow flowers 

 hanging pendent from amidst the tuft of leaves, each flower on a 

 slender pedicle, from the axis of a small lanceolate bractea, of a faint 

 oppressive smell. Calyx of six yellow pieces, the outer ones somewhat 

 scaly. Petals six, oblong, obtuse, each having at its base two oblong 

 prominent red glands on each side of the short claw. Stamens about 

 as long as the petals, and opposite to them. Filaments flat. Anthers 

 of two separate cells, opening elastically. Stigmas orbicular. Fruit 

 a one celled berry, oblong, slightly curved, crowned by the obtuse 

 black stigmas, of a fine scarlet colour, containing an acidulated pulp, 

 and two, sometimes three seeds, oblong, cylindrical, erect, attached 

 laterally to the bottom of the cell, its covering crustaceous, and albumen 

 fleshy. 



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