332 MISC. PUBLICATION 42 3, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



2, Thalictrum fendleri Engelm., Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci. Mem. ser. 

 2, 4: 5. 1849. 



Thalictrum wrightii A. Gray, PL Wright. 2: 7. 1853. 



Apache County to Mohave County, south to Cochise, Santa Cruz, 

 and Pima Counties, 5,000 to 8,500 feet, mostly in pine forests, common, 

 April to August. Wyoming to New Mexico, Arizona, and northern 

 Mexico. 



T. wrightii (T. fendleri var. wrightii (Gray) Trel.) has, typically, 

 smaller leaflets and relatively broader achenes than T. fendleri, but 

 the intergradation is so complete that the form is scarcely worth 

 maintaining, even as a variety. 



43. BERBERIDACEAE. Barberry family 



1. BERBERIS. Barberry, hollygrape 



Shrubs or undershrubs ; wood and inner bark yellow; leaves com- 

 pound, pinnate or palmately trifoliolate, the leaflets thick, evergreen, 

 spiny-toothed, more or less conspicuously re ticulate- veined ; in- 

 florescence racemose or subcorymbose ; flowers perfect, regular, 

 yellow; sepals, petals, and stamens 6, the sepals and petals each in 2 

 series; anthers opening by 2 apical valves; fruit a few-seeded berry. 



These handsome plants are secondary hosts of the black stem rust 

 of cereals, which restricts their otherwise considerable value for 

 planting as ornamentals. Some (perhaps all) of the species contain 

 berberine, which has limited use as a drug, and the Indians are said to 

 use the root as a tonic. The plants are reputed to be sometimes poison- 

 ous to livestock. The juicy berries of B. repens and B. haematocarpa 

 are excellent for making jelly and are eaten by birds and various 

 mammals. A brilliant yellow dye is obtainable from the roots. All 

 of the Arizona species belong to the holly grapes, subgenus Mahonia 

 or Odostemon. 



Key to the species 



1. Leaves palmately trifoliolate; leaflets with 1 or 2 pairs of large teeth, not 

 glaucous, rhombic- or triangular-wedge-shaped, the terminal one up to 

 3.5 cm. wide and not more than 5 (mostly 3 or 4) cm. long; berries at 

 maturity about 5 mm. in diameter, blue black, usually with a pronounced 



bloom.- 1. B. HARRISONIANA. 



1. Leaves pinnate, the larger ones usually with 5 or more leaflets (2). 



2. Inflorescence elongate, racemose, many-flowered, usually dense at anthesis; 



berries ovoid or ellipsoid, blue black and very glaucous when ripe; leaves 



not or only moderately glaucous, the leaflets broadly oblong-ovate to 



nearly orbicular (3). 



3. Stems above ground very short or almost none, seldom more than 10 cm. 



long; leaflets with numerous, commonly 10 or more, small and slender 



teeth, seldom strongly reticulate 2. B. repens. 



3. Stems above ground usually 20 cm. long or longer; leaflets with fewer than 



10 coarse teeth, commonly strongly reticulate 3. B. wilcoxii. 



2. Inflorescence usually short and subcorymbose, relatively few-flowered, loose; 

 berries globose or nearly so, not or only slightly glaucous (4). 



4. Berries at maturity dark blue, becoming dry and more or less inflated; leaf- 



lets usually distinctly reticulate, moderately glaucous, ovate or 

 broadly oblong, the terminal one short-acuminate, seldom more than 

 2.5 cm. long or more than twice as long as wide__ 4. B. fremontii. 

 4. Berries at maturity red, remaining juicy; leaflets not or obscurely reticu- 

 late, very glaucous, mostly lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, the termi- 

 nal one long-acuminate, commonly 3 or more (up to 11) cm. long and 

 2 to 5 times as long as wide 5. B. haematocarpa. 



