Berber is] 



vl. BExt-BEivIDACEJE 



29 



Deciduous, bark grey, brancMets red. Leaves membranous or thinly 

 coriaceouSj glaucous beneath, serrate with equal spinulose teeth, crowded on 

 arrested branchlets in the axils of 3-fid, rarely 5-fid or simple spines. 

 Racemes pedunculate, stigma broad, sessile. Berry ovoid or cylindiicj as 

 long as or shorter than pedicel, usually red when ripe. 



ISTortli-West Himalaya, mostly in shady forest of Silver Fir, Spruce and Oak, 8,000 

 12,000 ft. Fl. March-June. Tibet, Northern Asia, Japan and Glima, Afghanistan, 

 Europe. A form witli thinly coriaceous leaves in Baluchistan. 



3. B. aristata, DC; Brand. F. Fl. 12 ; Collett Simla Fl. fig. 8.— Syn. B. 

 tlnctoria^ Leschenault ; Wight 111. t. 8. Vern. Kashmal^ Kcmmicl^ Kammid^ 

 Simla ; Bagl Sutrumj Kan ; Kingora^ Garhwal. 



Branches shining, reddish-brown, slightly drooping. Leaves coriaceous, 

 more or less persistent, obovate or oblanceolate, green beneath, entire or with 

 few large distant spinescent teeth. FL golden yellow, in long drooping 

 compound racemes, much longer than leaves, peduncles and pedicels slender. 

 Berries spindle-shaped, tapering into a short style, stigma small subglobose. 



Outer Himalaya, Indus to Bhutan, 4,000-10,000 ft., Kilgiris, Ceylon PL Maruli-June. 

 On high exposed ridges a stunted shrub with smaller leaves and short racemes. 



4. B. Lycium, Eoyle; Brandis F. Fl. 12. Vern. Kabhmal, Chochar^ 

 Chotra, Simla. 



An erect shrub, bark grey or whitish, branches rigid. Leaves narrow^ 

 lanceolate or oblanceolate, coriaceous, mucronate, generally entire, bright green 

 above, glaucous beneath. Fl. small, pale yellow, in corymbose, at times 

 compound racemes, which generally are as long as or a little longer than 

 leaves. Pedicels slender, longer than the blue ovoid berries, style distinct^ 

 stigma capitate. 



Outer North- West Himalaya on clearances, along the roadside, often gregarious, 

 from Kashmir to Garhwal, 3,000-8,000 ft. Fl. March, April, a fortnight earlier than 

 B, aristata, 



5. B. asiatica, Eoxb. ; Bi^andis F, FL 12, 

 Bark pale, the arrested 



leaf -bearing shoots often 

 on the top of stout woody 

 tuberculate branchlets of 

 previous years. Leaves 

 rigidly coriaceous, white 

 beneath, obovate, some- 

 times nearly orbicular, 

 nerves and veins strongly 

 reticulate, lacunose be- 

 tween the veins. Seedlings 

 have broadly-ovate leaves, 

 petiole slender, more than 

 twice the length of blade. 

 The juvenile state of other 

 species {B, Wallichiana^ 

 JB. concinna) is similar. 

 FL in short corymbose 

 racemes. Berries large, 

 ovoid, often neaxdy globose, 

 red or black, stigma capi- 

 tate on a distinct style. 



Outer Himalaya, from Ku- 

 maun eastward, ascending to ^ 



7,500 ft. Parasnath in Behar. Fig. 12.— Berberis asiatica, Boxb. Seedling and 

 Fl H. S. fruiting "branch. J. 



