406 THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 
is sufficient to shed the pollen upon that spot where it is required 
to perform the office of fecundation.”’ 
The Burseripace#, or Barberries, are shrubs, or herbaceous 
perennials, with pale green, thin, deciduous leaves. Flowers with 
faint pleasant odour. Fruit and leaves an agreeable acid. Cha- 
racterised by the anthers opening by reflexed valves, the face of 
each anther-cell peeling off except at the point of attachment, 
where it adheres as if hinged. The stamens are opposite the petals; 
the flowers are usually ternary, there being three or six 
sepals and a like number of petals and _ stamens. 
Anthers two-celled, carpel solitary, free, and one-celled, 
style rather lateral, stigma orbicular, the stamens and 
pistil being ranged round it; fruit, a berry, in some 
species a capsule. The peculiar arrangement and 
structure of the anthers occur in no other plants except 
the laurels, and in the latter it is without petals. This 
structure is well represented in Fig. 406, which represents an 
anther (Beréeris vulgaris) in 
the act of dehiscence, which 
it accomplishes by the 
opening of two valves, ¥, 
' from which the pollen is 
' shed in the form of fine 
dust, p. This process is said 
to be dehiscence by two 
valves, one in each lobe. 
The bushes or herbs of 
which this order consists 
are extremely dissimilar in 
habits and appearance. 
They belong to the tempe- 
rate parts of the world, be- 
ing unknown in the tropics, 
except on mountain ranges. 
ou The common 
Fig. 407.—Stem of the Barberry. Berberis communis), 80 
called from fepPepv, the Greek name of the fruit, is well known zon 
its pleasant acid flavour ; glands upon its petals and pinnate leaves, 
