The Barberries 



tant of our fruit crops. We preserve them, some in 

 bunches, some picked like currants. We crystallise 

 them in sugar and they become delicious bonbons. 

 We steep them in salt and water and they keep as a 

 gay garnish for cold meat or game." * 



As an ornamental shrub it has beauty both in flower 

 and in fruit. Rather tall, its branches carry the pale 

 green, oval leaves arranged in small groups. Hidden 

 under each group are three sharp spines metamorphosed 

 leaves which guard the foliage from unlawful designs 

 upon it. Since the spurs are in trinities the shrub was 

 sometimes known as "the Holy Thorn," and it is one 

 of those that tradition credits with having formed part 

 of the Crown of Thorns. The flowers are small and 

 pale yellow and hang in clusters from the axils of the 

 leaf tufts. The fruits, each containing a single seed, 

 are like long thin pieces of coral, hence the shrub's 

 old name of " Piprage" or " Pipe-ridge," or "Pepperidge 

 Tree," all of which stand for " redpip." 



The Mahonia (B. aquifolium) of everyone's garden 

 also carries yellow flowers set in racemes, or clusters, 

 but here they are carried erect at the end of the 

 branches. It is a plant hailing from the western coast 

 of North America, and was found by David Douglas 

 in 1825 at Fort Vancouver while he was living there 

 in a hut made of bark, and sleeping in the open. 



* Bright, in "A Lancashire Garden," 1874 

 27 



