57 WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND BLOSSOMS. 



The leaf in this species, as its name signifies, has a round 

 blade, and this is attached to a long hairy leaf-stalk. In the 

 Narrow-leaved Sundew (D. intermedia) the blade is spoon- 

 shaped, and merges insensibly into the smooth leaf-stalk. In 

 the third species, or Long-leaved Sundew (D. anglica) the entire 

 leaf is similar to that of intermedia, but twice the length. In 

 neither of the long-leaved species are the leaves laid flat as in 

 rotundifolia j those of intermedia are erect, whilst those of 

 anglica are borne half- erect. D. anglica is rare in the South 

 of England ; the others are well distributed. The name is 

 derived from the Greek, Drosera, dewy, in allusion to the 

 bedewed appearance of the leaves. 



Barberry (Berberis vulgaris). 



The Common Barberry is a spiny shrub, growing in hedge 

 and copse, and brightening the spot from April to June with its 

 strings of yellow flowers, and later in the year with its oblong 

 red berries. Its shoots attain a height of from six to eight feet, 

 and are clothed in a whitish bark, the wood being yellow. The 

 flowers include eight or nine sepals and six petals : the outer 

 sepals are very small and liable to be overlooked. The petals 

 are in two series, and at the base of each petal are two honey- 

 secreting glands, which induce the visits of honey-loving 

 insects. There are six stamens, which ordinarily lie along the 

 centre of the petals, their bases highly irritable. In an open 

 flower like this any insect can get at the honey, but it is not easy 

 to do so without touching the base of one of the stamens ; on 

 this being done the stamen springs forward, and the anthers 

 strike the insect, dusting it with pollen, and in some cases 

 driving it away. This mechanism may be tested by touching 

 the base of a stamen with the point of a pin. 



The Barberry is very liable to the attacks of a minute fungus, 

 a stage in the development of wheat-rust (Uredo graminis). 

 The name Berberis is the Arabic title of the plant. 



