Bbebeeis.] jBEBjBERIDEM, 31 



caapeba, L.; Roxb. Fl. Ind. Hi. 842. C convolviilacea, Willd.; Roxh. I.e.; 



W. f A. Prcd. 14. C. obtecta, Wall.; Royle III. %1. Vern. Dahh- 



nirbisi (N.-W. Prov.)? Harjeivri (Oudh)j Purhe (Dehra Dun). 



A twining shrnb. Stem sbort, throwing out long herbaceous tomen- 

 tose branches. Leaves 1*4 in., usually peltate, orbicular to reniform, 

 more or less cordate at the base, apex obtusely mucronate. Male cyme 

 long-peduncled, axillary or nearly so, many fld ., hairy ; bracis minute. 

 Racemes of fern. fi. 1-2, axillary, with large reniform or orbicular hoary 

 bracts. Drupes ^ in., subglobose, hirsute, scarlet. 



Abundant throughout the^ area. Disteib. : Trop. and subtrop. India 

 from Sindh and the Punjab to Ceylon and Singapore. Cosmopolitan 

 in warm countries. Very variable as to the shape of the leaves and in 

 the amount of hairiness of the whole plant. The root-bark and leaves 

 are used medicinally, and often as a substitute for the true " Pareira 

 brava '' of commerce, which is now known to be the produce of CJiondro- 

 dendron tomentosum, Ruiz. & Pav., a native of Peru and Brazil. 



V.-BERBERIDEiB. 



Eeect or climbing shrubs, or glabrous herbs. Leaves simple or 

 compound with articulate segments, rarely stipulate ; buds scaly. 

 Flowers often globose, regular, solitary or in simple or compound 

 racemes, usually yellow or white. Sepals and petals free, hypogynous, 

 2-many -seriate, usually in whorls of 3 and imbricate, caducous. 

 Stamens usually 4-6, opposite the petals, free or connate ; anthers 

 adnate, dehiscing by slits or (in Berberis) by two ascending lids. 

 Carpels 1-3, rarely more, oblong ; style short or 0. ; stigma dilated or 

 conic or oblong. Eipe carpels usually indehiscent. — Chiefly temperate 

 or inhabiting mountains. 



To this family belongs Podophylhim emodi, Wall., a perennial herb 

 occurring more or less abui^dantly throughout the Himalayan ranges 

 between 6 and 14,000 ft.. The rootstock contains a valuable medicinal 

 resin known as ' podophyllin,' which hitherto has been chiefly prepared 

 from P. peltatum, the N. American representative of the genus. See 

 Watt E. D. 



7. BERBERIS. Linn.; Fl. Br. Ind. i. 108. 



Spiny shrubs with yellow wood. Leaves imparipinnate or in 

 fascicles of unifoliolate leaflets in the axils of 3-5-partite spines, 

 often themselves reduced to spines. Flowers yellow, 2-sexual, in 

 racemes or fascicles, rarely solitary. Sepals 6, with 2-3 appressed 

 bracts, imbricate in 2 series. Petals 6, imbricate in 2 series, usually 

 with 2 basal glands inside. Stamens 6, free ; antlier-G^Ws opening by 



