~ 
Peonia.] I. RANUNCULACES, 15 
In hilly districts, in southern Europe and central Asia, from the 
Pyrenees to the Caucasus and Himalaya. Not indigenous to Britain, 
but naturalised in the rocky clefts of the ‘‘ Steep Holme” Island, in the 
Severn. Fl. Mayor June. The variety there found is usually considered 
as a species (P. corallina), the name of P. officinalis being reserved for 
some of the garden Ponies, which are, however, mostly varieties pro- 
duced from this by cultivation. The half-shrubby Moutan is a very 
distinct species, from China. 
The Magnolias and Tulip-trees of our plantations belong to the Mag- 
nolia family, which has no European representative. They have, like 
the Ranunculacee, several distinct sepals, petals, stamens, and pistils, 
but they are always trees, or shrubs, their leaf-buds are enclosed in 
membranous stipules, and the carpels usually cohere in a kind of cone. 
Il. BERBERIDEZ. THE BARBERRY FAMILY. 
Shrubs or herbs, with alternate or radical leaves, and no 
stipules. Sepals and petals distinct, 2, 3, 4, 6, or 8 each, but 
never 5. Stamens the same number as the petals, and opposite 
to them. Anthers opening by valves or lids turned upwards. 
Ovary of a single carpel, with two or more ovules attached to 
the bottom or to one side of the cavity. Seeds albuminous. 
A small family, spread over the temperate regions or tropical 
mountains of the globe. It is universally admitted by botanists, 
although the connection between the Barberry and the herbaceous 
genera associated with it appears at first sight rather artificial. These 
are, however, none of them British. The Epimedium alpinum (Linn.), a 
native of south-eastern Europe, has indeed been admitted into our 
Floras as growing about old castles, &c., but only where it had been 
planted. Some Japanese Hpimediums are also cultivated in our gardens. 
I. BERBERIS. BARBERRY. 
Shrubs, with usually prickly leaves. Sepals 8 or 9, yellow, outer 
minute. Petals 6, in 2 series, with honeyed glands at their bases. 
Stamens 6. Fruit a berry. 
A rather numerous genus, chiefly Asiatic and American. Many 
exotic species are cultivated in our gardens, either with simple leaves, 
like our own, or belonging to a section with pinnated leaves, some- 
times considered as a genus under the name of Mahonia. 
1, B. vulgaris, Linn. (fig. 83). Common B.—A glabrous acid pale 
green shrub with yellow wood, attaining 6 or 8 feet, the branches 
arched and hanging at the ends, armed with 3-lobed thorns at the base 
of the tufts of leaves. Leaves alternate or clustered, obovate, rather 
stiff, sharply toothed. Flowers yellow, in elegant drooping racemes, 
with a disagreeable’smell. Berries small, red, oval or oblong, contain- 
ing 2 or 3 seeds. 
In hedges, thickets, and open woods, over the greater part of Europe 
and temperate Asia, to the Himalaya. In Europe it extends north- 
