BERBERIDE^E. I. BERBERIS. 



115 



1. Leaves simple. Peduncles many-flowered, racemose. 



1 B. VULGA'RIS (Lin. spec. 472.) spines 3-parted; leaves 

 somewhat obovate, ciliately-serrated ; racemes many-flowered, 

 pendulous ; petals entire. Tj . H. Native throughout the whole 

 of Europe and Western Asia, in hedges and coppices, especially 

 in a chalky soil ; it is even found on Mount Etna, at 5000 or 7500 

 feet above the level of the sea : in England, particularly about 

 Saffron- Walden in Essex, &c. Mill. diet. no. 1. Oed. fl. dan. t. 

 304. Smith eng. bot. 49. B. irritabilis, Sal. prod. 213. Fruit red. 



Far. ft, lutea ; fruit yellow. Lher. ined. 



Var. y, violacea, fruit violaceous. Poit. et Turp. arb. fr. 59. 



Var. S, purpiirea ; fruit purple ; leaves narrow, hardly-ciliated. 

 B. innominata, Kielm. dec. rar. pi. tub. p. 18. 



Var. t, nigra ; fruit black ; leaves oblong, ciliately serrated ; 

 serratures few. 



Var. , alba; fruit white. Mill. diet. no. 1. 



Var. 6, asperma ; fruit destitute of seeds. Mill. diet. no. 1 . 

 Shrubs from 4 to 8, but sometimes 25 feet high. Roots bitter, as- 

 tringent, boiled in lye will dye wool yellow. Bark purgative, taken 

 in the form of a decoction, in ale or other liquors, is efficacious 

 in the jaundice. The bark of the root and inner bark of the 

 stem affords a colour which will dye linen or cotton of a fine 

 yellow, with the assistance of alum. In Poland they dye leather 

 of a most beautiful yellow with the bark of the root. The leaves 

 are gratefully acid. The flowers are offensive to the smell when 

 close, but at a proper distance their odour is extremely agree- 

 able. The berries are so acid that birds will not eat them. The 

 Barberry, however, is cultivated for the sake of these, which are 

 pickled and used for garnishing dishes ; and being boiled with 

 sugar they form an agreeable rob or jelly, they were formerly 

 used as a dry sweet-meat as well as in sugar-plumbs and comfits. 

 They are moderately restringent, and are said to be of great use 

 in bilious fluxes, and in all cases where heat, acrimony, and pu- 

 tridity of the humours prevail. On the authority of Prosper 

 Alpinus we are informed that the Egyptians employ them in 

 pestilential fevers and fluxes with great success, and Simon Paulli 

 relates that he was cured of a malignant fever, accompanied with 

 a bilious diarrhoea, by using these berries according to the Egyp- 

 tian practice, that is, macerating them for a day and a night in 

 twelve times their quantity of water with the addition of a little 

 fennel-seed, and then stirring and sweetening the liquor and using 

 it as a common drink. Dr. Woodville observes in his Medical 

 Botany, vol. 4. p. 62, that these berries are well calculated to 

 allay heat and thirst, and to correct a putrid tendency in the 

 fluids ; but that, in this respect, they seem to possess no peculiar 

 advantages over most of the other acid fruits ; hence the colleges 

 of Edinburgh and London have expunged this fruit from the 

 Materia Medica, and retained only that of the currant. In many 

 parts of Europe a certain peculiarity is ascribed to this shrub, 

 that ears of corn growing near it constantly prove abortive, and 

 that it extends this sterile influence over them to the distance of 

 3 or 400 yards across a field ;. but this opinion is altogether 

 groundless. Insects of various kinds are remarkably fond of the 

 flowers of the Barberry, and the JEcidium Berberidis, its parti- 

 cular inhabitant, is supposed to generate the dust which, carried 

 from the bush by winds and lighting on wheat and other corns, 

 is said to give rise to the Puccinia, a minute fungus which closes 

 up the pores of the leaves and appears like rust or mildew. All 

 the peculiarities the B. vulgaris is said to possess runs through 

 the whole genus as well as the genus Mahbnia. 



Common Barberry. Fl. April, May. Brit. Sh. 8 to 20 ft. 



2 B. IBE'RICA (Stev. et Fish, in litt.) spines simple and 3- 

 parted ; leaves obovate-oblong, quite entire ; racemes many- 

 flowered, pendulous ; petals entire. Jj . H. Native of Iberia. 

 B. vulgaris? v, iberica. D. C. syst. 2. p. 6. 



. Iberian Barberry. Fl. April, May. Clt. 1790. Sh. 8 to 10 ft. 



3 B. EMARGINA TA (Willd. enum. 1, p. 395.) spines 3-parted; 

 leaves lanceolate-obovate, ciliately serrated ; racemes scarcely 

 pendulous, shorter than the leaves ; petals emarginate. Jj . H. 

 Native of Siberia. Very like B. vulgaris, but is one half smaller 

 in all its parts and with emarginate petals. 



Emarginate-petaWed Barberry. Fl. April, May. Clt. 1820. 

 Shrub 6 feet. 



4 B. CANADE'NSIS (Mill. diet. no. 2.) spines 3-parted ; leaves 

 obovate-oblong, remotely serrated, upper ones nearly entire ; 

 racemes many-flowered, nodding. 1? . H. Native of North 

 America in fertile hills and among rocks, especially in the Alle- 

 ghany mountains, from Canada to Carolina, also in Tennessee. 

 Pursh, fl. amer. sept. 1. p. 219. Nutt. gen. amer. 1. p. 210. B. 

 vulgaris, Mich. fl. bor. amer. I. p. 205. Hook fl. bor. amer. 1. 

 p. 28. Shrub 3 or 4 feet high, apparently between B. vulgaris 

 and B, Chinensis, The berries are said by Pursh to be more 

 acid and less fleshy than those of B. vulgaris. Nuttall says that the 

 petals are emarginate. The same incorrect idea too prevails in 

 the United States respecting the injurious effects of the Barberry 

 upon the wheat which grows in its neighbourhood. 



Canadian Barberry. Fl. April, June. Clt. 1759. Sh. 4 ft. 



5 B. SINE'NSIS (Desf. cat. ed. 1804. p. 150.) spines 3-parted; 

 leaves oblong, obtuse, entire, or the lower ones are a little toothed ; 

 racemes many-flowered, nodding. I? . H. Native of China. 

 Wats. dend. brit. t. 26. A shrub, 3 or 5 feet high. Berries 

 oval, of a deep-red colour, 1-2-seeded. This plant is perhaps 

 the B. vulgaris of Thunb. jap. 1. p. 146. 



China Barberry. Fl. May. Clt. 1800. Shrub 3 to 6 feet. 



6. B. FLORIBU'NDA (Wall. MSS.) spines 3-parted, unequal ; 

 leaves obovate-lanceolate, or obovate-oblong, tapering much to 

 the base, ending in a mucrone at the apex, paler beneath, 

 spiny-ciliated ; racemes many-flowered, loose, solitary, pendu- 

 lous ; fruit oblong. J? . H. Native of Nipaul. 



Bundle-flowered Barberry. Shrub 10 feet. 



7 B. ARISTA'TA (D. C. syst. 2. p. 8.) lower spines 3-parted, 

 upper ones simple and hardly bidentate at the base ; leaves 

 obovate-oblong, or lanceolate, mucronate, membranous, smooth, 

 serrated with 4 or 5 spinulose teeth ; racemes nodding, many- 

 flowered, longer than the leaves ; pedicels trifid, 3-flowered ; 

 berries oblong. ^ . H. Native of Nipaul. Hook exot. fl. t. 

 98. Ker. bot. reg. 729. B. angustifolia, Roxb. hort. beng. 87. 

 B. Chitria, Buch. in D.Don, prod. fl. nep. p. 1. A species 

 very like B. Sinensis. Ovaries oblong-cylindrical, crowned by 

 the very short thick style, and orbicular stigma. Leaves some- 

 times quite entire. 



Awned-leaved Barberry. Fl. April, May. Clt. 1820. 



8 B. AFII'NIS ; spines 3-parted, unequal ; leaves membra- 

 nous, oblong-obovate, tapering to both ends, spiny-ciliated in the 

 middle, but with the base and apex entire, paler beneath ; 

 racemes many-flowered, erect, long, loose, f? . H. Native of 

 Kamoon in the East Indies. B. floribunda? Wall. MSS. 



Allied Barberry. Shrub 6 feet. 



9 B. CERATOPHY'LLA ; spines strong, 3-parted, unequal ; 

 leaves lanceolate, or obovately lanceolate, mucronate, tapering to 

 the base, spiny-toothed ; teeth large, 2 or 3 on each side, paler 

 beneath ; racemes many-flowered, loose, erect ; pedicels long, 

 sometimes somewhat verticillate. Tj . H. Native of Nipaul ? B. 

 floribunda? Wall. MSS. 



Buckhorn-leaved Barberry. Shrub 6 to 10 feet. 



10 B. CRE'IICA (Lin. spec. 472.) spines 3-5-parted; leaves 

 oval-oblong, entire, or somewhat serrated; racemes 3-8-flowered, 

 rather shorter than the leaves. T? . H. Native of Crete and 

 Cyprus. Fl. graec. t. 342. Clus. hist. p. 301. Alpin. exot. 

 21. t. 20. Berries ovate, black, 2-seeded, more sour than 

 acid ; stigma on a very short style. 



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