sturtevant's notes on edible plants 87 



properties.' The acid berry is made into confections and eaten as an antiscorbutic, under 

 the name mountain grape. 



B. aristata DC. nepal barberry. 



East Indies. The Nepal barberry produces purple fruits covered with a fine bloom, 

 which in India are dried in the sim like raisins and used like them at the dessert.^ It is 

 native to the moxintains of Hindustan and is called in Arabic aarghees} The plants are 

 quite hardy and fruit abundantly in English gardens. Downing cultivated it in America 

 but it gave him no fruit.'' In Nepal, the berries are dried by the Hill People and are sent 

 down as raisins to the plains.^ 



B. asiatica Roxb. Asiatic barberry. 



Region of Himalayas. According to Lindley, the fruit is round, covered with a 

 thick bloom and has the appearance of the finest raisins. The berries are eaten in India.* 

 The plants are quite hardy and fruit abundantly in English gardens. 



B. buxifolia Lam. Magellan barberry. 



This evergreen shrub is found native from Chile to the Strait of Magellan. Accord- 

 ing to Dr. Philippi, it is the best of the South American species; the berries are quite large, 

 black, hardly acid and but slightly astringent. The fruit, says Sweet, ^ is used in Eng- 

 land both green and ripe as are gooseberries, for making pies and tarts. In Valdivia and 

 Chiloe, provinces of Chile, they are frequently consumed. It has ripened fruit at Edin- 

 burgh, and Mr. Cvmningham ' enthusiastically says it is as large as the Hamburg grape 

 and equally good to eat. It is also grown in the gardens of the Horticultural Society, 

 London, from which cions appear to have been distributed. Under the name Black Sweet 

 Magellan, it is noticed as a variety in Downing. It was introduced into England about 

 1828. 



B. canadensis Pursh. American barberry. 



North America; a species found in the Alleghenies of Virginia and southward but 

 not in Canada.' The berries are red and of an agreeable acidity.'" 



B. dai^imiii Hook, darwin's barberry. 



Chile and Patagonia. In Devonshire, England, the cottagers preserve the berries 

 when ripe, and a party of school children admitted to where there are plants in fruit will 

 clear the bushes of every berry as eagerly as if they were black currants." 



> Case Bot. Index 10. 1881. 



Downing, A. J. Fr. Fr. Trees Amer. 244. 1857. 



Pickering, C. Chron. Hist: Pis. 708. 1879. 



* Downing, A. J. Fr. Fr. Trees Amer. 244. 1857. 

 'Wight, R. Illustr. Ind. Bot. 1:23. 1840. (B. cristata) 



Brandis, D. Forest Fl. 12. 1874. 



' Sweet, R. Brit. Flow. Card. 1:100. 1831. 

 Loudon, J. C. Hort. 580. i860. (B. didcis) 

 Gray, A. Man. Bot. $z. 1868. 

 " Pursh, F. Fl. Amer. Septent. 1:219. 1814. 

 ^'^Gard. Chron. 28:21. 1882. 



