38 WEEDS AND USEFUL PLANTS. 



trivance for the liberation of the pollen ; instead of emitting it, as is 

 usually the case, through a longitudinal slit, there is a little valve or 

 trap-door, hinged at the top, which opens spontaneously. The leaves 

 of the young shoots afford a marked illustration of the nature of some 

 kinds of spines. Though not generally enumerated among the hedge 

 plants, it possesses many qualities which adapt it to this use ; being very 

 hardy, long lived, and easily propagated. It was formerly a popular 

 belief, and one which prevails yet to some extent, that the Barberry 

 possessed the power of blasting grain. The fallacy of this idea has been 

 proved ; the only injury it can cause the grain is by shading it, which it 

 is very likely to do when allowed to grow, unchecked, along the borders 

 of fields. The berries, preserved in sugar, are in common use in New 

 England, to eat with meat or to form an acid cooling drink in 

 fevers. The inner bark has tonic and purgative properties, said to be 

 somewhat similar to those of rhubarb ; it is one of the remedies of the 

 so called "Indian Doctors," according to whom the virtues are essen- 

 tially modified by the way in which the bark is removed, whether by 

 scraping upwards or downwards. 



_ A variety with reddish foliage, and several Asiatic species, are cul- 

 tivated. The Mahonias, which are evergreen Barberries with pinnate 

 leaves, are natives of the far west, and are fine ornamental shrubs. * 



2. PODOPHYL'LUM, L. MAY-APPLE. 



[Greek, POMS, a foot and Phyllon, a leaf ; the leaf resembling a web -foot.] 



Sepals 6, thin and caducous, not expanding, subtended by 3 caducous 

 bracts. Petals 6-9. Stamens twice as many as the petals ; anthers 

 linear-oblong, opening lengthwise by a laterally hinged valve. Ovary 

 ovoid, crowned by the thick sessile undulate stigma. Fruit a fleshy 

 berry, the numerous seeds crowded on the large lateral placenta, each in- 

 vested with a pulpy aril. Herbs with 2-leaved 1-flowered stems arising 

 from a creeping perennial rootstock. 



L P. pelta'tum, L. Stems bearing 2 deeply lobed leaves; flower 

 solitary from the point where the petioles unite. 



PELTATE PODOPHYLLUM. May-apple. Mandrake. Hog-apple. 



Stems 8-12 inches high, the flowerless ones bearing a single large peltate leaf. Leaves 

 4-6 inches in diameter, the lobes somewhat toothed at the apex, flower white, nearly 2 

 inches broad. Fruit 1-2 inches long, yellowish, slightly acid. 



Woodlands, common. Fl. May. Fr. July -August. 



Obs. Besides the common names above given this is known in some 

 parts of the country as Wild Lemon and Raccoon Berry. The fruit is 

 edible and harmless ; its taste is mawkish aud disagreeable to many 

 persons. Both foliage and root are poisonous ; serious results have fol- 

 lowed the use of the leaves as greens. The root is a violent purgative, 

 resembling jalap in its action. Although one of the popular names of 

 this plant is Mandrake, it is not related to the Mandrake or Maudragora 



