The Natural System of Botany. 141 



rVhetween the veins) others with the web hardly visible, and 



h rs with the spines only remaining. The leaves are them- 

 ° 1 s bordered by spiny teeth, which are the points of their 



' s and there is a little joint near their base by which they 

 2e articulated with their stalk. 



From the midst of a cluster of leaves appear the yellow 

 fl wers in a drooping raceme something like that of a currant. 

 V ch flower consists of three little external scales tipped with 



i . they are the outermost sepals ; then of three petal-like 



its the inner sepals ; and within these of six genuine petals. 



The great similarity between the parts thus differently des- 

 . ated s }j 0WS that the distinction between a calyx and corolla 

 *s in many instances very arbitrary, although in other instan- 

 ces it may be plain enough. At the base of each of the true 

 petals are two parallel yellow oblong glands, the nature and 

 use of which are unknown. Between these glands, and op- 

 posite t the petals are the stamens, six in number, consist- 

 ing of a filament somewhat thickened at its upper end and an 

 anther, whose lobes, growing to each side of the end of the fila- 

 ment, have a singular mode of opening. At first the lobes 

 resemble those of any common anther, but when the time comes 

 for the fertilization of the stigma, instead of splitting along 

 the middle, the anther opens at the edge all round, except 

 near the point, and liberates its valve or face, which curves 

 back and allows the pollen to drop out. This is a very curious 

 phenomenon, and is technically called bursting by recurved 

 takes. The ovary is oblong, the stigma flat, round and sessile, 

 and in its centre is an opening which leads to the single cell 

 of the ovary. 



The two essential characters of the Barberry tribe are 

 stamens as many, or twice as many as the petals, and oppo- 

 site to them, and anthers opening by recurved valves. 



This tribe contains, besides the Barberry itself, several in- 

 teresting plants, among which in the United States, is the May 

 Apple or Wild Mandrake, Podophyllum peltatum, which is a 

 native of various parts of the Northern and Eastern States, and 

 is curious for its peltate leaves, and its reticulated petals. It is 

 a low, neat looking plant, with a drooping white flower often 

 overshadowed by tie broad leaves, and the fruit, from which 



