WILD FLOWERS YELLOW AND ORANGE 
which develops into a summer-stage or form (Uredo), 
known as a wheat rust. At one time, Massachusetts 
farmers were obliged by a state law to destroy all 
the Barberry bushes found growing near their wheat- 
fields. This did not necessarily check the fungus, 
as it is known to have propagated and spread for 
years thereafter. The Pepperidge Bush is a native 
of Europe and Asia, and has been introduced into this 
country, where it has become naturalized in the Eastern 
and Middle States, and sparingly in Canada and the 
West. It prospers in dry, gravelly soil in waste places, 
and grows six or eight feet high, in a healthy, robust 
way of its own. Its many spreading branches are 
gracefully arched and drooping at the ends. The 
smooth gray twigs are armed with numerous sharp, 
three-pronged spines or thorns. The thorns of the 
Barberry really represent leaves. This is proven by 
the fact that they produce a leaf bud in their axil. 
If a new season’s growth is examined, various gradu- 
ations from the fully develeped spiny leaf at the base, 
to the reduced branching spine toward the tip, will 
be found. Generally, thorns are stunted, woody 
branches, starting from the axils of the leaves, but they 
should not be confused with the thorns of the Wild 
Rose or Blackberry, which are merely growths on the 
bark, and if the bark is peeled off, the thorns adhere 
to it. The Barberry’s small yellow flowers have a 
disagreeable odour. They have six sepals, six pistils, 
and six stamens. The latter are curiously arranged, 
and form little inverted arches between the thick, 
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