BEEBERIDACILE. 203 



rh(jmljie-spatulate, or none. Stamens many, with small anthers and 

 slender white filaments, more showy than" the petals. Pistil 1, the 

 broad stigma sessile, obscurely 2-lobed. Fruit a berry. (Latin name 

 of the Elder, transferred by Linnasus to these plants.) 



1. A. spicata L. var. arguta Torr. Plants with stoutish root- 

 stocks, propagating vegetatively by suckers; stems clustered, IJ to 2^ 

 ft. high; leaves mostly radical, 1 to 2 ft. long, triternately divided, 

 then trifoliolate, or the middle divisions again ternate; leaflets rather 

 deeply incised and sharply serrate, IJ to 2J in. long; petioles short or 

 almost none; racemes terminal, .1 in. long, or with 1 or 2 small 

 lateral racemes in the axils of the upper leaves; tips of sepals often 

 pinkish; petals none, or 1 or 2 and white, concave dorsally; stamens 

 11 to 14 or 18; berries red or white with polished surface. 



Northward slopes of bushy hills, rather Infrequent: Berkeley; 

 Marin Co. 5Iar.-Apr. 



35. BERBERIDACE>E. Barberry Family. 



Shrubs or herbs. Ours have alternate exstipulate compound 

 leaves; flowers perfect, regular, hypogynous, with 6 sepals and 6 

 petals (there being 2 circles of each, 3 pieces in a circle); stamens as 

 many as the petals and opposite them ; anthers opening by an uplift- 

 ing valve or lid. Ovary one, 1-celled, becoming in fruit a berry or 

 capsule. Seeds with endosperm. 



Prickly shrubs; leaves pinnate: petals bifid .1. Bkeberis. 



Perennial herbs; leaves bi- or tri-teruate; petals entire . 2. VANCfiuvEEiA. 



1, BERBERIS-L. Bakbekry. 

 Shrubs with j-ellow wood. Leaves alternate, prickly, in ours pin- 

 nately compound with the raehis jointed at the insertion of the 

 leaflets. Flowers yellow, in hracteolate racemes. Sepals petal-like. 

 Petals concave, in ours distinctly bifid. Filaments irritable. Stigma 

 peltate-umbilicate. Fruit a berry. (Berbervs, Arabic name of the 

 fruit.) 



Racemes from small lateral or terminal buds of Irlangular or roundish decidu- 

 ous scales, about 2 lines long. 

 Leaflets 5 to 7. very undulate and strongly spinose, few-toothed .1. B. didyota. 



LeafletsS to 17, nearly plane, with many prickly teeth 2. B. pinnala. 



Racemes from a large terminal bud of persistent glumaceous scales about 1 in. 

 long . . .... . 3. -B. lUTVosa. 



1. B. dictyota Jepson. Erect, stout, scarcely branched, 3 to 4J 

 ft. high, sparsely leafy; leaflets 5 to 7, glaucescent on the upper 

 surface, little paler but very prominently reticulated on the under 

 surface, very strongly undulate, lowest pair close to base of petiole; 

 filaments with a recurved tooth on each side near the apex. 



Denuded areas in the Pellejo Hills, Solano Co., growing in the 

 crevices of rocks, the only known locality within our limits. First 

 collected at the Jlarysville Buttes. Mar. Leaflets strongly callous- 

 margined, glaucescent on the upper face, little paler beneath, so 



