BERBERIDACEAE. Ill 



151. COPTIS. Goldthread. 



Low glabrous perennials with slender rootstocks; leaves all 

 radical, ternately divided or compound; flowers on scapes, 

 solitary, or in few-flowered umbels; sepals 5-7, petal-like; petals 

 5-6, small, linear, hood-shaped; stamens numerous; pistils 3-7, 

 on slender stalks, in fruit forming a cluster of divergent follicles. 



• Coptis occidentalis (Nutt.) T. & G. Scapes 2-3-flowered, 10-25 cm. tall; 

 leaves trifoliolate, evergreen; leaflets long-petioled, suborbicular, deeply 

 3-lobed, the lobes obtuse, dentate, or again lobed; sepals linear, 3-nerved, 

 white, 1 cm. long; petals 5-6 mm. long, short-clawed at the base, broadened 

 at the nectary, attenuate beyond, obtuse; stamens about 12, shorter than the 

 carpels; mature carpels 3.5 cm. long, the fruiting portion spreading, longer 

 than the erect stipe. In woods in the mountains along the Idaho border. 



Family 39. BERBERIDACEAE. Barberry Family. 



Shrubs or herbs ; leaves alternate, mostly compound or divided, 

 with stipules or dilated bases ; flowers perfect, the bracts, sepals, 

 petals and stamens all opposite; all the parts distinct and hy- 

 pogynous; sepals and petals each usually in two rows of three; 

 anthers opening by two valves or lids hinged at the top; pistil 

 single; style short or none; fruit a berry or pod; seeds few or 

 several; endosperm present. 



152. BERBERIS. 



Shrubs with yellow wood; leaves alternate, simple or com- 

 pound, often spiny ; flowers yellow, in clustered racemes, evergreen 

 (in ours) ; bractlets 2-6; sepals 6, petal-like; petals 6, in two rows, 

 each with two basal glands; stamens 6, short; stigma peltate; 

 fruit a berry. 



Leaflets palmatel)' nerved. B. nervosa. 

 Leaflets pinnately nerved. 



Leaflets 5-11, shining, strongly spinulose. B. aquifolium. 



Leaflets 3-7, dull, often glaucous, weakly spinulose. B. repens. 



Berberis nervosa Pursh. Oregon Grape. Stems erect, simple, 15-30 cm. 

 high; leaves 30-75 cm. long, with 11—19 leaflets, these ovate or lanceolate, 

 acuminate, spinulose-dentate; bud scales lanceolate, acuminate, 2-2.5 cm. 

 long, persistent, becoming dry and rigid; racemes terminal, one or several, 

 10-20 cm. long; pedicels shorter than the fruit; berries globose, purple-black 

 with a white bloom, very acid. Lake Coeur d'Alene, rare. Abundant west 

 of the Cascade Mountains. 



Berberis aquifolium Pursh. Shrub often 1-2 m. high, erect or nearly so; 

 leaflets,5-ll, evergreen, shining, oblong or ovate, 4-10 cm. long, with numerous 

 spiny teeth; racemes usually clustered, subterminal; berries black with a bloom, 

 usually pear-shaped. Gravelly woods about Spokane. 



Berberis repens Lindl. Low depressed shrub, 20-30 cm. high, often with 

 subterranean stolon-like branches; leaves pinnately compound, 3-7-foliolate; 



