16 berberidace.e. 



Order 5. BERBERIDACEJK. 



Herbs or shrubs with alternate leaves, exstipulate. simple or compound: u-ith solitary, 

 racmose. or pa n ieleil flowers. Sepals 3 to 6, imbricated in 2 rows. Corolla hypogy- 

 nous. Petals 1 to 3 times as many as the sepals, and opposite to them. Stamens a« 

 many or twice as many as the petals, and opposite to them. Otart solitary, 1-celled, 

 simple ; style rather lateral : stigma orbicular. Frcit a berry or capsule. Seeds one 

 or few, attached to the bottom of the cell, or many attached to a lateral placenta. 



1. BERBEKIS, Linn. Barberry. 



Arabic B'.rberis; name of the fruit. 



Sepals G, mostly with bracteoles at the base. Petals 

 6 with 2-glands upon their claws. Stamens G; filament* 

 flattened ; anthers 2-lobed; lobes on opposite edges of the 

 connectile style. Stigma circular, depressed. Fruit a 1 to 



3 seeded berry. Seeds erect, with a crustaceous integument. 

 — Fine liarely shrubs, with yellow wood and inner bark. 



1. B. Canadensis, Pursh. American Barberry. 



Br a nches verrucose-dotted. Tvith short triple spines: haves spatulate-oblong", 

 remotely serrate with somewhat bristly teeth ; racemes sub-corymbose ; four-flowered ; 

 marginate : berries sub-globose or oval. 



Allegheny mountain-. May. Leaves alternate at base but nearly sessile, margin 

 serrulate with 6 to 8 distant mucronate teeth. Racemtes 5 to 8 flowered, nodding. 

 flowers and fruit as well as the leaves smaller than in B. vulgaris. 



2. B. vulgaris, L. Common Barberry, 



Leaves scattered on the young shoots of the season, mostly small, and with sharp- 

 lobed margins, or reduced to sharp triple spines : simple, elosely serrate, with 

 bristly teeth ; racemes many-flowered, pendulous; petals satire; berries oblong. 



Roadsides and fields. Xative of Europe, naturalized. April and May. A shrub 



4 to 6 feet high. Leaves alternate. 1],< 2 to 2 inches long. }/. as wide. Flowers in 

 pendulous racemes, pale yellow. Siamens irritable, springing violently against the 

 stigma when touched. Berries red. very acid. The bark of the root dyes yellow. 



2. PODOPHYLLUM. Linn. May Apple. 



Gr.poiis, a foot; and phuUon a leaf; the leaf resembling a web-foot. 



Sepals 3, oval, obtuse, caducous. Petals 6 to 9, obo- 

 vate, concave. Stamens 9 to 18, with linear anthers. 

 Stigma large, sub-sessile, peltate, persistent. Berry large, 

 ovoid, 1-celled, somewhat fleshy, not dehiscent. Seeds nu- 

 merous. — Low perennial plants, with creeping rootstalks> and 

 thick fibrous roots. 



1. P. pellatum, L. May Apple. Wild Mandrake. 



Fhnverintj stem erect, 2-parted, bearing 2 1-sided leaves, with the stalk fixed near 

 the inner edge, palmately lobed; flowerless stems terminated by a large, round, T 

 to 9 lobed leaf, peltate in the middle like an umbrella • flower solitary, in the fork 

 of the petiole, pendulous. 



Woods : common. May. Stt m a foot high. Flower white, 2 inches in diameter. 

 Fruit ovoid, 1 to 2 inches long ; ripe in J uly ; yellow, with the flavor of the strawberry. 



