TREES AND SHRUBS. 



BEEBEEIS BBETSCHKEIDEEI, Eehd. 



Leaves deciduous, chartaceous at maturity, ob ovate-oblong, obtuse, gradually narrowed at the 

 base, densely and unequally, often nearly doubly setose-serrate, the teeth with long setae pointed 

 forward, light yellowish green on the upper surface, glaucescent on the lower surface, with promi- 

 nent veins, stomatiferous only on the under side, not papillose, from 4 to 6 centimetres long and 

 from 1.8 to 3 centimetres broad ; petioles very short or up to 1 centimetre in length. Flowers 

 pale yellow, about 7 millimetres in diameter, in pendent racemes from 3 to 4 centimetres long, on 

 peduncles about 1 centimetre in length ; pedicels slender, from 6 to 8 millimetres long, usually 

 purple like the small ovate acute persistent bract at their base ; outer sepals orbicular-ovate, tinged 

 with purple, with two small ovate acute purple prophylla at the base of the flower, about half as 

 long as the broadly ovate inner sepals ; petals six, from 4 to 5 millimetres in length, as long as 

 the inner sepals, broadly oval and emarginate at the apex, with purplish obovate nectaries obtuse 

 at the apex; filaments filiform, longer than the anthers; ovaries oblong, purplish, with sessile 

 capitate stigmas, and sessile ovules. Fruit in pendent purple racemes, oblong, often slightly 

 pyriform, about 1 centimetre in length, purplish and slightly pruinose, the stigma sessile ; seeds 

 usually two, oblong, narrowed toward the base, 7 millimetres long, brown, finely reticulate. 



An upright shrub, attaining in cultivation the height of from 2 to 3 metres, with dark red-brown 

 terete one-year-old branches, later becoming gray, and producing prominent floriferous spurs; 

 spines usually simple, small, light brown, about 1 centimetre long. Flowers appear in May. 

 Fruit ripens in September. Late in the autumn the leaves change to handsome shades of orange 

 and scarlet. 



North China: Seeds collected in the mountains near Pekin were received at the Arnold 

 Arboretum from Dr. E. Bretschneider in 1880. 1 



Berberis Bretschneideri is closely related to Berberis Amurensis, Ruprecht, but is chiefly distinguished from that 

 species by its terete reddish brown branches, the less prominent reticulate veinlets on the lower surface of the leaves, and 

 its more spreading habit. No wild specimens from north China referable to this species have been seen, but there is 

 a Japanese specimen in the herbarium of the Arnold Arboretum collected on the shores of Lake Umoto in Japan, 

 September 6, 1892, by C. S. Sargent, which is closely allied to this species, differing from it only in its narrower more 

 acute leaves. 



Berberis Bretschneideri has proved perfectly hardy in the Arnold Arboretum and is a vigorous fast-growing shrub 

 which is particularly ornamental in autumn, when its foliage assumes a brilliant color. The pale flowers, however, 

 which are produced rather sparingly, and the fruits are less attractive than those of most other Barberries. 



Alfred Rehder. 



Arnold Arboretum. 



1 From one of these cultivated plants this description and plate have been made. 



