26 



THE WATEKLILY FAMILY. 



ever none of them British. The Epimedium alpinum (Eng. Bot. t. 438) 

 has indeed been admitted into our Floras as growing in some moun- 

 tainous spots in the north of England, but, as it is said, only where it 

 had been planted. It is a native of south-eastern Europe. A Japanese 

 Epimedium is also cultivated in our gardens. 



I. BARBERRY. 



BERBERIS. 

 Sepals, petals, and stamens, 6 



Shrubs, with usually prickly leaves. 

 each. Eruit a berry. 



A rather numerous genus, chiefly Asiatic and American. Many 

 exotic species are cultivated in our gardens, either with simple leaves, 

 like our ow r n, or belonging to a section with pinnated leaves, sometimes 

 considered as a genus, under the name of Malwnia. 



1. Common Barberry. Berberis vulgaris, Linn. (Eig. 32.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 49.) 



A glabrous pale-green shrub, 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, ovate, 

 rather stiff, sharply toothed. Elowers 

 yellow, in elegant drooping racemes, with 

 a disagreeable smell. Berries small, red, 

 oval or oblong, containing two or three 

 seeds. 



In hedges, thickets, and open woods, 

 over the greater part of Europe and 

 temperate Asia, to the Himalaya. In 

 Europe it extends northwards into Scan- 

 dinavia, but has been so frequently 

 x °' ** planted, that the real limits of its area 



cannot be ascertained. Scattered over Britain, but probably not really 

 indigenous. Fl. spring or early summer. 



III. THE WATERLILY FAMILY. NYMPH^EACE^E, 



Aquatic herbs, with a prostrate submerged rootstock, orbicu- 

 lar or peltate floating leaves, and large solitary flowers. Sepals 

 few. Petals numerous, in several rows, passing gradually into 

 the stamens, which are also very numerous, their anthers aduate. 



