BARBERRY FAMILY. Berberidaceae. 



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 tivated kinds of Barberry, for it 

 Trailing Barberry -. 



Berberis rtpens S rows close to the ground in a straggling 

 Yellow bunch. In favorable situations it is a 



Spring handsome and conspicuous plant. The 



Nev' AriZ " Utah * leaves ' with from three to seven leaflets 

 are stiff, prickly, and evergreen like Holly, 



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

 stems, with opposite bracts. The six sepals, petals, an< 

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

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

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

 in Utah they are far handsomer, rich golden-yellow an< 

 sweet-scented, forming clusters two inches long. Th 

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

 of wild grapes, contrasting well with the foliage when i 

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

 them. B. aquifolium, 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-j 

 merous drooping clusters. The calyx has conspicuous,] 

 red bracts and the berry is red. 



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