BARBERRY 199 



ciliate scales ; twigs slender, grey, with torn remains of 

 the epidermis. Pith rounded. Shoots with dark hairs. 

 Branches grey to brown, with peeling epidermis. 



** Spines 1, 3 or 5-partite, not flanking or 

 subtending a leaf-scar, but bearing the 

 obtuse buds directly in their axils. 



Berberis vulgaris, L. Barberry (Fig. 101). The tawny 

 yellowish spines are metamorphosed leaves and are usually 

 tripartite and somewhat lax, with slightly decurrent mem- 

 branous insertion. Buds short and stumpy, the outermost 

 scales evidently persistent leaf-bases, brown. The buds 

 are in reality naked, i.e. composed of leaves in an embry- 

 onic condition, and not of true scales, though surrounded 

 by leaf-bases. Each small nearly elliptical leaf-scar bears 

 3 minute approximated leaf-traces. Pith small, round, 

 and pale. Twigs tawny or grey, bright yellow inside. 

 Spines may be lacking towards the ends of the long 

 shoots, or they may be simple. Branches grey-white to 

 grey-brown, with fine fissures. 



(/3) Spines in no way associated closely with 

 the leaf-bases or scars, but scattered on 

 the internodes, and superficial; i.e. they 

 are neither foliar nor branch-structures, 

 but prickles. 



* Prickles recurved, dilated, and compressed 

 at the base, like cats' claws. 



t Buds fat, ovoid, glabrous, blunt ; twigs 

 cylindrical, smooth ; leaf-scars narrow, cres- 

 centic, with 3 leaf-traces. 



