508 BUSH-FRUITS 



palates. A very serious objection appears in the large size of its 

 seeds, though different plants vary somewhat in this respect. 

 Were it not for this defect it might become a fruit-producing 

 plant of considerable importance. Its name, tree cranberry, 

 is a standing temptation to smooth-tongued agents to recommend 

 the plant as a satisfactory substitute for the cranberry, suited to 

 upland soils and regions in which the cranberry does not succeed. 

 In such cases it must prove a disappointment, though deserving 

 the highest praise for the purposes to which it is adapted. The 

 plant is perfectly hardy, so far as cold is concerned, and can be 

 grown in almost any soil or location. It may be propagated by 

 layers, by hard-wood cuttings, or by seeds, though the latter 

 require two years for germination. 



{THE BARBERRY 



Unlike many of the fruits which we have been considering, the 

 barberry has once been popular and has since declined in favor. 

 It may, therefore, be appropriate to substitute for a modern 

 description of the plant that given by Gerarde in 1597. He says: 

 " The barberry plant is an high shrub or bush, having many young 

 straight shoots and branches very full of white prickly thorns, the 

 rind whereof is smooth and thin, the wood itself yellow: the 

 leaves are long, very greene, sleightly nicked about the edges, 

 and of a soure taste: the flours be yellow, standing in clusters 

 upon long stems: in their places come up long berries, slender, 

 red when they be ripe, with a little hard kernell or stone within, 

 of a soure and sharp taste : the root is yellow, disperseth it self 

 far abroad, and is of a wooddy substance. Wee have in our London 

 gardens another sort, whose fruit is like in forme and substance, 

 but one berry is as big as three of the common kinde, wherein 

 consisteth the difference. We have likewise another without any 

 stone, the fruit is like the rest of the Barberries both in substance 

 and taste." 



In regard to its distribution, Gerarde says: "The barberry 

 bush grows of it selfe in untoiled places and desart grounds, in 

 woods and the borders of fields, especially about a gentlemans 



