ALPINE FRUITS AND BERRIES 15 



One of the commonest and most picturesque of the bushes 

 bearing berries is the Barberry (Berberis vulgaris). It is a glabrous 

 shrub, six or eight feet in height, with yellow wood like others of 

 its family. The branches are armed with three-lobed thorns at the 

 base of the tufts of leaves. The yellow flowers, in elegant drooping 

 racemes, appear in May or June. The berries are oblong and very 

 acid, green at first, then golden and finally bright red. In a single 

 walk such as that spoken of above, from Martigny over the Col de 

 la Forclaz (nearly 5000 ft.) down the steep escarpment to Trient, 

 round the Tete Noir and down to Chatelard on the French frontier 

 the fruit of the Barberry can be seen early in August in every shade 

 of green, yellow and red, according to the altitude. In the hot 

 slopes above Martigny it will be already crimson, while nearer the 

 Forclaz the young fruit is still in its tender green stage. Similar 

 transformations can, of course, be seen in walking from the Rhone 

 Valley up any of the beautiful valleys to the south leading into the 

 heart of the Pennine Chain. 



