BARBERRY FAMILY. Berbertdaceae. 



There are many kinds of Barberry, widely distributed; 

 shrubs, with yellow wood; the leaves often spiny and the 

 flowers yellow; the sepals six to nine, with bracts and 

 resembling petals; the petals six, in two overlapping rows, 

 each with two glands at the base; the stamens six, with 

 anthers that open by little valves like trap-doors, hinged 

 at the top, sensitive and, when they are touched, closing 

 around the shield-shaped stigma; the fruit a berry, with 

 one or few seeds. 



This does not look much like the corn- 

 Oregon Grape, mon cu i t i vate( i ^nds of Barberry, for it 

 Trailing Barberry . . 



Berberis ripens g rows close to the ground in a straggling 

 Yellow bunch. In favorable situations it is a 



Spring handsome and conspicuous plant. The 



CaL, Ariz., Utah, leaves> w i th f rom three to seven leaflets, 



are stiff, prickly, and evergreen like Holly, 

 and the yellow flowers are in clusters at the ends of the 

 stems, with opposite bracts. The six sepals, petals, and 

 stamens are all opposite, that is, with a petal in front of 

 each sepal and a stamen in front of each petal. In Ari- 

 zona the flowers are rather small and the clusters short, but 

 in Utah they are far handsomer, rich golden-yellow and 

 sweet-scented, forming clusters two inches long. The 

 fruit is a handsome blue berry with a "bloom," the color 

 of wild grapes, contrasting well with the foliage when it 

 turns red in the autumn, and delicious jelly is made from 

 them. B. aquifblium, of Oregon and Washington, is sim- 

 ilar, with much more beautiful, very shining leaves. B. 

 Fendleri, of the Southwest, is from three to six feet high, 

 the branches smooth and shiny as if varnished, the leaves 

 with smooth edges or spiny teeth, and the flowers in nu- 

 merous drooping clusters. The calyx has conspicuous, 

 red bracts and the berry is red. 



