252 BERBERIS 



and as a salad. A decoction of the bark and yellow wood was formerly 

 celebrated as a remedy for jaundice. It is now discarded from the Materia 

 Medica, but in many country places much faith in its virtues still exists. 



In gardens, the barberry is useful on account of its accommodating nature 

 and hardy constitution. It may be useful to fill up out-of-the-way corners 

 or other such places, where its vigorous nature will enable it to grow and 

 thrive, and hold its own without attention. But it is beautiful enough to 

 deserve a more prominent position. It has been planted at Kew on the 

 top of the ha-ha wall that divides the gardens from the Thames, and nothing 

 can be more beautiful than are these plants in October, when the branches, 

 drooping over the wall, are laden with masses of scarlet berries. Even on 

 a lawn it will make a fine "specimen" bush ; more beautifql often than many 

 rarer things so employed. At Leonardslee, Horsham, there is a specimen 

 26 ft. high, and 2 ft. 2 ins. in girth of stem. 



Innumerable varieties or minor forms of this barberry exist. No good 

 purpose would be served by attempting to describe or even name them ; a 

 single sowing of seeds will sometimes produce variations quite as important, 

 both botanically and horticulturally, as many of those to which long names 

 have been given. The following deserve mention : 



Var. ALBO-SPICATA. Young shoots and leaves creamy white. 



_yar. ASPERMA. This remarkable variety produces berries without 

 seeds, and it is, in consequence, more valuable for preserves, etc., than the 

 fertile type. The famous sweetmeats of Rouen, confitures define vinette, are 

 made from the fruits of this variety, now very uncommon in this country. 



Var. DULCIS. A quite sweet-fruited kind, found in the Austrian mountains 

 early in the nineteenth century ; it does not come true from seed, and is 

 perhaps not now in cultivation in Britain. 



Var. PURPUREA. Purple barberry. Leaves deep purple, one of the hand- 

 somest of wholly purple shrubs. It comes partially true from seed. 



Var. VARIEGATA. Leaves margined with yellow. 



There are, besides, other varieties with berries differing in colour, such as 

 fructu albo (white) ; fructu luteo (yellow) ; and fructu nigro (black). The 

 two last I have not seen, but they are mentioned by Loudon ; the first is not 

 uncommon. 



B. AMURENSIS, Ruprecht (B. vulgaris var. amurensis, Regel), is sometimes 

 regarded as a geographical variety of the common barberry, sometimes as a 

 species. It differs in the much larger leaves, which are often 3^ to 4 ins. long, 

 and i^ to 2 ins. wide, perhaps the largest of all true barberry leaves. They are 

 thin in texture, as in B. vulgaris, but the toothing is proportionately closer and 

 finer. Racemes 3 ins. long, with flowers like those of vulgaris but rather larger, 

 followed by large oblong berries. It has stouter stems than vulgaris, and 

 flowers rather earlier, but is only half its height. Native of Amurland. 



B, WILSONS, Hemsley. MRS WILSON'S BARBERRY. 



(Bot. Mag., t. 8414.) 



An elegant, deciduous (sometimes partially evergreen) shrub, 2 to 4 ft. 

 high, of spreading habit, and usually more in diameter ; branches comparatively 

 thin, reddish brown, slightly downy, armed with slender three-parted spines 

 \ to | in. long, and red when young. Leaves as a rule less than i in. long, 

 mostly oblanceolate, and either rounded or sharply pointed at the apex, 

 otherwise entire, or occasionally three-lobed at the apex ; smooth, conspicuously 

 veined, grey-green above, somewhat glaucous beneath. Flowers small, pale 

 yellow, borne two to six together in fascicles or short racemes. Berries 

 roundish, coral- or salmon-red, somewhat translucent, borne very abundantly. 



Native of W. China ; discovered and introduced about 1904 by Mr E. H. 



