2 EVERGREEN BERBERRIES CULTIVATED IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



A little trailing bush, with stiff, 3-parted spines, and linear, 

 pungent leaves, not unlike those of Genista anglica; bright 

 green, clustered, and about an inch long. From their axils 

 appear, in the month of May, a few bright yellow flowers, grow- 

 ing singly or in pairs, on stalks shorter than the leaves. 



This is a well-known plant, suited for rock-work in a mild 

 climate, but among the less valuable of the genus. According 

 to Dr. Hooker, it is confined to the Cordillera, and characteristic 

 of a dry climate. 



Very nearly related to this is a plant called, in Mr. Low's 

 nursery, B. cuneata. It has much more slender spines, and 

 fine subulate leaves. At present its flowers are unknown to 

 me, and it necessarily remains for future description. The name 

 is a very bad one, and must at all events be altered. 



2. The STAR-SPIJSfED Berberry. 



Berberis actinacantha, Martius, in Homer and Schultes, vol. 

 vii. p. 12. Botanical Register, 1845, t. 55. 



Found all over Chile, in the mountainous districts. 



In gardens a stiff bush, about 3 feet high, conspicuous for 

 its great palmate spines, and small, sessile, dark green, spiny, 

 fascicled leaves. The flowers are abundant, but small and 

 clustered, not racemose. 



It is among the least interesting of the genus, and is scarcely 

 more worth cultivating than B. heterophylla, or the so-called 

 Mahonia Knightii. It is quite hardy, but subject to lose a great 

 part of its leaves in severe winters. 



3. The BOX-LEAVED Berberry. 



Berberis buxifolia, Lamarck, Illustr., t. 253, fig. 3. J. 

 Hooker, Fl. Antarctica, ii. p. 231 t. 87 — alias B. dulcis, 

 Sweet, British Flower Garden, ser. 1, ii. t. 100. Pax- 

 ton's Magazine, x. t. 171. The Botanist, i. t. 42 — alias 

 B. rotundifolia of the Nurseries — alias B. microphylla, 

 Forst. Comment. Gbtt., 9, p. 29 — alias B. inermis, 

 Per soon, Sy?iops., i. 387. 



A very common plant all over the southern regions of South 

 America, throughout Patagonia, Chiloe, Tierra del Fuego, 

 and the Straits of Magellan. 



In gardens it forms a straggling bush, with small ovate, or 

 oblong, spiny-pointed, toothless leaves, of a dull dark-green 

 above, and somewhat glaucous with indistinct veins beneath. 

 When the bush is old, it produces an abundance of strong 3- 



