BERBERIDACE/E— BARBERRY FAMILV 



COMMON BARBERRY 



Birberis vulgaris. 



The derivation of Berberis is very greatly in doubt ; it has 

 been referred to the Arabic, to the Greek, and to the 

 Hindoo, but its origin is lost in the mists of antiquity. 



Thorny, three to ten feet high, introduced from Europe, and 

 hardy throughout our northern range. It suckers freely ; is long- 

 lived ; grows rapidly when young but slowly afterward ; prefers 

 a soil with lime. Wood is yellow ; roots are long and crooked ; 

 berries, leaves, and roots are acid and astringent. 



Leaves. — On fresh shoots of the season the leaves are scattered, 

 mostly reduced to sharp, triple or branched, slender spines ; from 

 whose axils, in the next season, proceed rosettes of obovate leaves 

 of varying sizes. Finally, by annual growth a short, stout, little 

 branch is formed in the axil of each bunch of spines and at the 

 apex of these tiny branches the leaves appear, really alternate, but 

 so crowded as to look like rosettes. The thorns are from three- 

 eighths to one inch long. Leaves are oval to obovate, one to one 

 and one-half inches long, pointed at the base, rounded at the 

 apex, bristly toothed, pinnately veined. They come out of the 

 bud yellow-green, glabrous, when full grown are bright green 

 above, paler beneath; in autumn they become a dull purplish 

 green, or fall unchanged. 



Flowers. — May, June. Perfect, yellow, borne in drooping, 

 many-flowered racemes. 



Calyx. — Sepals six, in two rows, hypogynous, imbricate in bud, 

 roundish, with two to six small bracts beneath. 



