248 BERBERIS 



sometimes nine or eleven, prongs, each 1- to f in. long, slender. Leaves pro- 

 duced in dense rosettes ; small, obovate, ^ to i in. long, thin, with teeth 

 directed outwards, and proportionately large. Flowers solitary, rarely in pairs, 

 J in. across, bright yellow, drooping. Fruit dark red. ^ 



Native of Siberia and Mongolia, where it grows in crevices of rocks and 

 similar places. Resembling B. aetnensis in habit, it differs in its solitary 

 flowers and much divided spines. Pallas, the Russian traveller and naturalist, 

 who introduced this shrub to cultivation in 1790, states that in Mongolia a 

 decoction of the twigs is applied to the eyes as a charm, which recalls the 

 virtues ascribed to B. Lycium in eye affections by the natives of N. India. 



B. SIEBOLDII, Miguel. SIEBOLD'S BARBERRY. 



A deciduous shrub of rounded form, with leaves and branches very similar 

 to those of B. vulgaris, but dwarfer, and usually below 3 ft. in height. Leaves 

 thin, varying from narrowly obovate to oval, I to 2^ ins. long, tapering at the 

 base to a short stalk, the margins crowded with fine bristles. Flowers pale 

 yellow, ^ in. across, in racemes ij to 2 ins. long. Fruit globose, yellowish 

 red, shining as if glazed. 



Native of Japan ; perhaps a Japanese prototype of our common barberry, 

 differing in its dwarfer habit and more distinctly ciliate leaves. We have, 

 however, in cultivation a barberry from Japan still more closely allied to 

 B. vulgaris ; this is B. REGELIANA, Koehne (B. vulgaris var. japonica, Reget). 

 It is much confused with B. Sieboldii in gardens, and is grown under that name. 

 It is, however, a taller shrub with more angled branches, and the fruit is 

 distinct in being of a bright rosy carmine, covered with bluish bloom, and of 

 oblong or oval shape. 



B. SINENSIS, Desfontaines. 



A very elegant, deciduous shrub, up to 5 or 6 ft. high, with slender, pendulous 

 branches ; young shoots smooth, somewhat angled, glossy ; spines weak 



HERBERTS SINENSIS. 



sometimes three-parted at the base of the shoot, but mostly simple. Leaves 

 green on both surfaces, oblanceolate or narrowly obovate, f to 2 ins. long, 

 \ to \ in. wide ; on the flowering shoots they are smaller and without teeth, 

 but on the sterile shoots are more or less toothed ; sometimes rounded, 

 sometimes spine-tipped. Racemes 2 to 3 ins. long, one of them pendent from 

 each leaf-cluster. Flowers pale yellow, J in. diameter, each one borne on a 

 thread-like stalk. Berries bright red, slender, nearly J in. long. 



