BARBERRY FAMILY. Berberidaceae. 
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There are many kinds of Barberry, widely distributed; 
shrubs, with yellow wood; the leaves often spiny and the 
flowers yellow; the sepals six to nine, with bracts and 
resembling petals; the petals six, in two overlapping rows, 
each with two glands at the base; the stamens six, with 
anthers that open by little valves like trap-doors, hinged 
at the top, sensitive and, when they are touched, closing 
around the shield-shaped stigma; the fruit a berry, with 
one or few seeds. 
This does not look much like the com- 
Trailing Barberry 02 cultivated kinds of Barberry, for it 
Bérberis repens &tOwWS Close to the ground in a straggling 
Yellow bunch. In favorable situations it is a 
Spring © handsome and conspicuous plant. The 
ik Ariz.,Utah, eaves, with from three to seven leaflets, 
3 are stiff, prickly, and evergreen like Holly, 
and the yellow flowers are in clusters at the ends of the 
stems, with opposite bracts. The six sepals, petals, and 
stamens are all opposite, that is, with a petal in front of 
each sepal and a stamen in front of each petal. In Ari- 
zona the flowers are rather small and the clusters short, but 
in Utah they are far handsomer, rich golden-yellow and 
sweet-scented, forming clusters two inches long. The 
fruit is a handsome blue berry with a “‘bloom,”’ the color 
of wild grapes, contrasting well with the foliage when it 
turns red in the autumn, and delicious jelly is made from 
them. B. aquifolium, of Oregon and Washington, is sim- 
ilar, with much more beautiful, very shining leaves. B. 
Féndleri, of the Southwest, is from three to six feet high, 
the branches smooth and shiny as if varnished, the leaves 
with smooth edges or spiny teeth, and the flowers in nu- 
merous drooping clusters. The calyx has conspicuous, 
red bracts and the berry is red. 
Oregon Grape, 
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