52 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



formed of a one-celled ovary, 1 surmounted by a subcircular head, 

 which is depressed in the centre and covered with stigmatic papilla?. 

 Near the bottom of the ovary is seen the placenta, which is basilar 

 or somewhat oblique and parietal bearing a variable, usually small, 

 number of ascending anatropous ovules, with the raphe posterior 

 and the micropyles brought down near the base of the cell. 2 The 

 fruit (figs. 55, 56) is a berry containing one or several seeds. These 

 contain within their coats a fleshy albumen surrounding a rather 

 lar^e embryo with its radicles inferior. The Berberries are shrubs 

 with alternate compound, uni- or plurifoliolate leaves. These are 

 persistent and pinnate 3 in the species which have been termed 

 Mahomet? while in Berberis proper they are caducous, reduced to a 

 single leaflet. There are moreover here two sorts of leaves. On 

 the short twigs ended by the simple racemes we see as a rule only 

 membranous unifoliolate leaves, articulated at the base. 5 But in 

 the longer twigs that do not end in an inflorescence, 6 which develop 

 during the summer, the leaves are usually transformed into, finally, 

 woody spines. These spines have three, five or seven digitate 

 branches, each corresponding to a rib of the leaf. This hence lacks 

 parenchyma, and it is not articulated at the base. The young shoot 

 developed in its axil bears unifoliolate articulate leaves like those 

 we have described above. Between fifty and sixty distinct species 

 of Berberis are known, 7 shrubs with yellow wood ; they are natives 



s 



1 This bears externally a longitudinal groove, 5 Below this articulation is a short dilated 

 often very ill marked, corresponding with the petiole, often bearing above, on either side, a 

 placentary side of the gynaBceum. little stipule-like tongue (rudiment of a lateral 



2 Hence it is anterior and inferior. The ovules leaflet?). 



have two coats. Those that are highest on the 6 This sometimes occurs reduced to a single 



placenta are the oldest. In some species there flower. 



are only two or three. < Pall., Fl. Ross., t. 67. — H. B. K., Nov. 



3 The leaflets are opposite, sessile or pedi- Gen. et Spec, t. 430-133. — R. & Pay., Fl, Per., 

 cellate, articulated at the base. Moreover, the t. 280-282.— Sibth., Fl. Grcec, t. 324. — Nutt., 

 rachis is transversely articulated above the inser- Gen., i. 210. — A. S. H., Fl. Bras. Mer., i. 41, t. 

 tion of each pair of leaflets. In M. trifoliata 10. — Schrad., in Linncea, xii.460. — Wall., PL 

 Cham., there are on top of the common petiole As. Rar., t. 243. — Pcepp. & Endl., Nov. Gen. 

 three digitate leaves, articulated at the base. et Spec, t. 187.— C. Gay, Fl. Chil, i. 71. — 



4 Nutt., Gen., i. 211.— DC, Syst., i. 18; Hook. f. & Thoms., Fl. Ind., i. 129.— Eichl., 

 Prodr., i. 108.— Odostemon Rafin., in Amer. in Mart. Fl. Bras., Berb., 230, t. 52.— A. Okay, 

 Month/. Mag. (1819), 192. The flowers usually Gen. III., t. 31.— Gren. & Godr., Fl. de Fr., i. 

 form compound racemes, and the stamens are 54. — Boiss., Fl. Or., i. 102.— Bot. Reg., t. 487, 

 marked by the enlargement of the top of the 729, 1750.— Walp., Rep., i. 101; ii. 749; iv. 

 filament near the base of the anther into two 19; Ann., i. 19; ii. 23; iii. 813; iv. 142; vii. 

 lateral hooked prominences, with their points 71. 



downwards. (See Adansonia, i. 337; ii. 275.) 



