YELLOW AND ORANGE WILD FLOWERS 
of brilliant scarlet berries begin to brighten hilly 
pastures and wayside thickets. Gardeners take advan- 
tage of this extremely ornamental shrub, and use it 
extensively for making hedges and beautifying home 
grounds. Its decorative value may be better appre- 
ciated when it is considered that the attractive ber- 
ties remain throughout the winter. The fruit is 
sour and puckery, but not altogether unpleasant to 
the taste, and when cooked, they make a beautifully 
coloured syrup or jelly of pleasing flavour. Indeed, 
the store of preserved viands on the swing shelf in the 
cellar or topmost shelf in the upstairs closet of any old 
New England farm house is not replete until the busy 
housewife makes her old-fashioned Barberry jam. 
Then all hands look forward to the coming Thanks- 
giving dinner with the satisfaction of knowing that 
there surely will be the making of Barberry tarts — 
tarts that outclass the cranberry sort, too. And if on 
the day following the feast, a body should happen to 
feel feverish or indisposed, the same Barberry usually 
helped to adjust the effects of too much turkey and 
pumpkin pie, for it is both food and medicine. The 
juice of the berries has a cooling effect upon fever 
patients, and it is used as a gentle tonic, and was 
formerly administered in cases of jaundice. The 
roots and inner bark are sometimes used to make a 
yellow dye, and also for tanning purposes. Malic 
acid is made from the berries. The Barberry is 
severely condemned by wheat growers because it is 
believed to harbour a mildew or fungus (Aecidium) 
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