VINES AND SHRUBS 



its stigma, straightening up again soon after. This phenom- 

 enon is best seen in dry weather. It is a device to secure 

 cross-pollination, a visit from an insect causing the anthers 

 to shed their pollen upon its body, to be borne to another 

 flower. The barberry is supposed to be injurious to wheat, 

 being invested with a mildew (Aecidium berberidis) , which in 

 a different form becomes the rust (Uredo) of wheat. A law 

 in Massachusetts once compelled farmers who cultivated 

 wheat to cut down all barberry bushes near their fields. 

 To those not interested in wheat cultivation, the yellow 

 racemes of flowers and scarlet fruit of the barberry make it a 

 welcome attendant of our drives, found, as it is, in exposed 

 situations bordering woods and fields. Its range is through- 

 out New England, as far north as Canada and Newfoundland. 

 It keeps near the coast, in gravelly soil. Shrub 5 to 8 feet 

 high, with grayish bark. It has been planted with success 

 for hedges. It is used to tan leather and for a yellow dye. 



American Barberry 



B. canadensis. — Color, yellow. Leaves, wavy-margined, toothed, 

 not so bristly as the last. Flowers, in racemes, few, with petals 

 notched at apex. June. 



A shrub or small tree found in swamps of Virginia and 

 southward. 



Fever Bush. Spice Bush. Benjamin Bush. Wild 

 Allspice 



Benzoin aestivkle. — Family, Laurel. Color, greenish yellow. 

 Leaves, alternate, 2 to 5 inches long, broad above the middle, 

 pointed at apex, tapering to the base, short-petioled, entire, the 

 midrib often dividing the leaf unequally, revolute and softly 

 hairy along the margin, pale beneath, spicy and aromatic in odor 

 and taste. Stamens and pistils in different flowers. Calyx of 

 6 sepals, greenish yellow, petal-like. Corolla, none. Sterile 

 blossoms, with 9 stamens in 2 or 3 rows, all with large, 2 -celled 

 anthers, the inner row of filaments glandular at base. The pis- 

 tillate flowers have a roundish ovary, surrounded by many rudi- 

 mentary stamens. Flowers, peduncled, 3 to 6 in clusters, several 

 such clusters forming a compound umbel which is surrounded by 

 a 4-leaved involucre. Fruit, at first retaining the style in a little 

 pit at its apex, dropping this when ripe, and becoming a large, 

 red, oval drupe. 



A graceful, tall bush, 4 to 12 feet high, smooth-stemmed, 

 with brittle branches, The yellow flowers appear before the 



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