The Barberries 



Thunberg's Barberry (Berberis Thunbergii\ with its 

 crowded tufts of small leaves and its solitary yellow 

 flowers hanging singly, has no special beauty in the 

 spring-time. Its glory comes with the dying year when, 

 under the pale November sunshine, it transforms into 

 a shrub of flame, a veritable burning bush, punctuated 

 by brilliant scarlet lines the long narrow fruit. The 

 consummation of the season's life of this shrub expresses 

 itself in the bright-hued fruit, but the decay and disso- 

 lution of its leaves is an end of no less brilliancy, so 

 vivid are their crimsons, scarlets and reds. 



A plant from the far East, it was noted by Thun- 

 berg at the end of the eighteenth century, but it was 

 not brought into England until the sixties. For 

 touches of gaiety in autumn days no better plant could 

 be placed in any garden. Like the Common Barberry 

 it is a deciduous plant. 



The Japanese Mahonia (B. japonicd) is a very 

 striking evergreen shrub. Its leaves are a large and 

 coarse replica of those of the Mahonia, as many as 

 thirteen leaflets sometimes making up a leaf. Their 

 margins are deeply toothed and very spiny. The 

 flowers, which appear in March, are arranged on a 

 number of spikes, some six or seven inches long, which 

 spikes are gathered into clusters at the tips of the 

 branches. They are characterised by a very sweet 

 fragrance. The fruit is an elongated purple berry. 



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