THE BARBERRY TRIBE. 11 



Barberry may be taken as the representative {Plate 

 XX vi. ^2.). This plant is so common in plantations and 

 pleasure gi'ounds, that all persons would be acquainted 

 with it, if it were onlv for the quantities of bunches of 

 red succulent acid fruit ^^'ith which it is loaded in the 

 autumn ; and for its evil reputation as a poisoner of 

 wheat when it grows in the hedge-row of a corn-field. 

 You will find the branches of this bush covered 

 over with sharp spines (fg. 1, a.), some of which are 

 divided into three, or five, or even a greater number 

 of lobes, and some of which are imdivided. What 

 think you are these ? Not prickles like those of the 

 Rose, for they are regularly arranged over the stem, 

 and will not break off by a slight pressure sideways ; 

 nor spines like those of the Hawthorn, for in the 

 Hawthorn the spines originate in the bosom of leaves, 

 but in the Barberry the leaves originate in the bosom 

 of the spines. These parts are an exceedingly curious 

 state of the leaf. They are the first kind of leaf that 

 the Barberry produces when it shoots forth from the 

 bud ; but immediately after, or perhaps at the same 

 moment with, their production, other perfectly formed 

 leaves break out from their axils, and thus at nearly 

 the same instant, the branches are covered with 

 spines for their defence, and with leaves for tlieir 

 adornment. That these spines really are leaves you 

 may easily ascertain by looking for a very vigorous 

 shoot of the Barberry, when you will find some of 

 them with the space between the stiff" spiny lobes filled 

 up by a web of parenchyma, others with the web hardly 

 visible, and others with the spines alone remaining. 



