16(3 



B E R 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL. 



E E R 



pith, and covered with an ash-coloured bark ; flowers towards 

 the ends of the branches in pendulous racimes ; berries first 

 green, but when ripe changing to a fine red colour. Native 

 of the eastern countries, and now of most parts of Europe, in 

 woods, coppices, and hedges It is found in a chalky soil in 

 England, particularly about Saffron-Walden in Essex. The 

 flowers appear in May, and the fruit ripens in September 

 The varieties of this species are not worth enumerating. The 

 leaves of this shrub are gratefully acid : the smell of the flowers 

 is offensive when near, but pleasant at a certain distance : the 

 berries are so very acid that birds seldom touch them. The 

 Barberry is cultivated for the sake of the fruit, which are 

 pickled, and used for garnishing dishes, and being boiled with 

 sugar, form a most agreeable rob or jelly ; they are used 

 likewise as a sweetmeat, and in sugar-plums or comfits. 

 The roots boiled in lee, yield a yellow colour; and in 

 Poland they dye leather of a fine yellow colour with the bark 

 of the root. The inner bark of the stems will also dye linen 

 of a fine yellow, with the assistance of alum. Cows, sheep, 

 and goats, are said to eat it ; horses and swine, to refuse it. 

 The fruit of the Barberry is considered as a mild restringent 

 acid, agreeable to the stomach, and of efficacy, like other 

 vegetable acids, in hot bilious disorders, and in a putrid dis- 

 position of the humours. According to Prosper Alpinus, the 

 Egyptians employed a diluted juice of the berries in ardent and 

 pestilential fevers. Their method is to macerate them in 

 about twelve times their quantity of water, and let them stand 

 for about twenty-four hours, and then to add a little Fennel- 

 seed. The liquor is then pressed out and strained, and 

 sweetened with sugar, or syrup of citrons, roses, &c. and 

 given plentifully as a drink. A concrete, similar to cream of 

 tartar, may be obtained from the juice, by mixing it with 

 Lemon juice, in the proportion of two pounds of Barberry 

 juice, and two ounces of Lemon juice, and digesting them in 

 a sand-heat for two days, and then gently evaporating the 

 filtered liquor to one half, and setting it in a cellar for some 

 days. The tartar incrustates the sides of the vessel, and is a 

 grateful medicine in febrile disorders : in fact, it is the essen- 

 tial salt of the Barberry. The berries of this shrub are also 

 made into an agreeable jelly, by boiling them with an equal 

 weight of fine sugar to a proper consistence, and then strain- 

 ing it. As the leaves are also acid, they have been sometimes 

 employed for the same purposes as the fruit, and have been 

 introduced as an ingredient in salads. The celebrated na- 

 turalist, Mr. Ray, successfully employed the inner yellow 

 bark, which is austere and bitterish, in the form of a decoc- 

 tion, as a gentle purgative in the jaundice. It is also said to 

 be a good lotion for the itch, and other cutaneous eruptions. 

 Insects of various kinds are remarkably fond of the Barberry 

 flowers. Linneus observed long since, that when bees, in 

 search of honey, touch the filaments, they spring from the 

 petal, and strike the antherae against the stigma, and thereby 

 explode the pollen. The purpose which this curious con- 

 trivance of nature is intended to answer is evident: in the 

 original position of the stamina, the antherae are sheltered 

 from rain by the concavity of the petals ; thus probably they 

 remain, till some insect, coming to extract honey from the 

 base of the flower, thrusts itself between the filamenia, and 

 almost unavoidably touches them in the most irritable part ; 

 thus the impregnation of the germen is performed ; and as 

 it is chiefly in fine sunny weather that insects are on the wing, 

 the pollen is also in such weather most fit for the purpose of 

 impregnation. It is generally propagated by suckers, which 

 are put out in great plenty from the roots : but these plants 

 are very subject to send out suckers in greater plenty than 

 those which are propagated by layers ; therefore the latter 



method should be preferred. The best time for laying down 

 the branches is in autumn, and the young shoots of the same 

 year are the best j these will be well rooted by the next 

 autumn, when they may be taken off, and planted where they 

 are designed to remain. When this plant is cultivated for its 

 fruit, it should be planted single, (not in hedges, as was the 

 old practice,) and the suckers every autumn taken away, and 

 all the gross shoots pruned out; by this method the fruit will 

 be much fairer, and in greater plenty. A few of these shrubs 

 may be allowed to have place in wildernesses, or plantations 

 of shrubs, where they will make a pretty variety ; but they 

 should not be planted in great quantities near walks, because 

 their flowers emit a very strong disagreeable odour. 



2. Berberis Cretica ; Cretan, or Box-leaved Barberry. 

 Peduncles subuinbelled ; spines triple. This never rises 

 more than three or four feet high in England. It flowers in 

 April and May, but is not succeeded by fruit. Native of 

 Crete or Candia, and also of Japan. This sort may be pro- 

 pagated by laying down the branches in the same manner as 

 the first species ; but when the young plants are taken 

 off, they should be planted in pots, and sheltered under a 

 frame in winter, till they have obtained strength, when they 

 may be turned out of the pots, and planted in a warm 

 situation. 



Bergera ; a genus of the class Dodecandria, order Mono- 

 gynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth five-parted, 

 very small, acute, spreading, permanent. Corolla : petals 

 five, oblong, bluntish, spreading. Stamina : filamenta ten, 

 five alternately shorter. Antherae round. Pistil : germen 

 roundish, superior ; style filiform, club-shaped ; stigma tur- 

 binate, shining, with transverse grooves. Pericarp : berry 

 subglobular, one-celled. Seed; two. ESSENTIAL CHA- 

 RACTER. Calix: five-parted. Petals: five. Berry: sub- 

 globular, one-celled, with two seeds. The only species 



hitherto discovered is, 



1. Bergera Koenigii. This a very leafy tree, with the 

 bark of Alder. Native of the East Indies. 



Bergia ; a genus of the class Decandria, order Pentagy- 

 nia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth five-parted, 

 spreading ; leaflets lanceolate, permanent. Corolla ; petals 

 five, oblong, spreading, the length of the calix. Stamina : 

 filamenta ten, bristle-shaped, of middling length. Antherae 

 roundish. Pistil : germen roundish, superior ; styles five, 

 very short, approximating ; stigmas simple, permanent. Pe- 

 ricarp : capsule simple, subglobular, mucronate, with five 

 little swellings, five-celled, five-valved ; valves ovate, flat, 

 opening along the furrows, permanent, spreading very 

 widely. Seeds : numerous, minute. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. 

 Calix: five-parted. Petals: five. Capsule: one, globular, 

 with swellings, five-celled, five-valved ; valves resembling 

 petals. Seeds : very many. The species are, 



1. Bergia Capensis. Leaves lanceolate, or elliptic ; flowers 

 n whorls. A native of Tranquebar in the East Indies. 



2. Bergia Glomerata. Leaves obovate, crenulate; flowers 

 glomerate. Native of the Cape of Good Hope. 



Bertiera; a genus of the class Pentamlria, order Mono- 

 gvnia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Oi/tr .- perianth turbinate, 

 ive-toothed. Corolla: one-petalled ; tube short ; mouth 

 villose ; border five-cleft ; clefts ovate, acute, spreading, 

 Stamina : filamenta five, very short, inserted into the tube 

 Deneath the orifice. Anthera; linear, erect. Pistil : germen 

 roundish, inferior, crowned by a gland ; style filiform ; stig- 

 ma two-plated. Pericarp t berry globose, crowned by the 

 teeth of the calix, two-celled. Seeds : very many, round- 

 ,sh, affixed to the dissepiment. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. 

 Ca/u:: turbinate, five-toothed. Corolla: tube short, with a 



