XXX VIII. THE COMMON BARBERRY. 521 
yellow coloring matter. The fruit, leaves and young shoots 
contain a great deal of oxalic acid; the bark of the root is bitter 
and astringent. 
Many of the species are cultivated in the gardens of Europe 
for the beauty of their flowers and foliage. Of these the most 
valuable are the Chinese, the Emarginate-leaved, the Nepaul, 
and iwo beautiful evergreen species, with compound leaves, na- 
tives of Oregon, and brought thence by Lewis and Clark, which 
would doubtless flourish in our climate. ‘These were separated 
from the barberry, by Nuttall, under the name of Mahonia. A 
third, more beautiful than all, comes from the mountains of 
California. 
All the species throw up numerous suckers, by means of which 
they may be readily propagated, as they may also by seed. 
Tue Comuon Barserry. 8B. vulgaris. L. 
Figured in Audubon’s Birds, II, Plate 188. 
Every one, who is an observer of nature, must have been 
struck, in June, with the beauty of the arching upper shoots of 
the barberry, springing from a mass of rich green, and sustain- 
ing numerous, pendent racemes of splendid yellow flowers. It 
is hardly less attractive when its blossoms have been succeeded 
by clusters of scarlet fruit. 
The barberry is a bush of usually four or five, but often seven 
or eight feet in height, and two or three inches in diameter, with 
a whitish or light-gray, shining bark on the recent shoots, and 
amuch darker gray on the old stems. The principal stem is 
upright and very much branched towards the top. It is armed 
with single or somctimes triple spines, in the axil ef many of 
which, at intervals of an inch or more, are tufts of leaves, from 
the centre of some of which issues a raceme of flowers. ‘The 
leaves are inversely ovate, with numerous, bristly, soft serra- 
tures. It flowers in May and June, and the scarlet berries ripen 
in autumn, but often remain on the plant through the winter. 
The roots are very long and crooked, and covered with a 
wrinkled bark; the wood within is of a bright orange or yellow, 
and very soft. The wood of the stem is also yellow; it is hard 
and brittle, and little used, in this country, except in dyeing 
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