204 



BERBERIDACE.E. 



strongly undulate that the few but stout spines are presented in nearly 

 every direction. Racemes fewer and not so dense as in B. pinnata; 

 pedicels 5 to 6 lines long. Wood not so yellow as in no. 2. 



2. B. pinnata Lag. California Barberry. A few in. to 4 or 



5 ft. high; leaflets usually 5 to but often 11 to 13 (or even as many 

 as 17 and rather crowded on the rachis), ovate-elliptical to oblong, 1 

 to 2\ in. long, shining above, somewhat paler beneath, plane or 

 moderately undulate, shallowly repand and dentate, the mostly 

 numerous teeth prickly; lowest pair close to base of petiole; racemes 

 clustered, dense; filaments as in the last. 



Rather common on hills, mostly along the edge of thickets. 

 Berkeley Hills and San Francisco southward to Monterey. Mar.- 

 Apr. 



3. B. nervosa Pursh. Mahonia. Leaves in a tuft from a low 

 scaly caudex, 9 to 16 in. long, the rachis conspicuously nodose; 

 leaflets 11 to 17, bright green, ovate to ovate -lanceolate, spinulose- 

 serrate, and somewhat palmately nerved; scales of the strong terminal 

 bud about 1 in. long, coriaceous-glumaceous; racemes erect, elongated. 

 4 to 6 in. long; bracts oblong to lanceolate, membranaceous; filaments 

 not toothed. 



Woods near the coast from Marin Co. northward to Oregon and 

 Washington. 



2. VANCOUVERIA Morr. & Decsne. 



Low perennial herbs with slender creeping rootstocks and bi- or 

 tri-ternately compound leaves, all radical or nearly so. Flowerjs 

 small, nodding, arranged in a panicle on slender scape-like peduncles. 

 Sepals 6 in two series, obovate, petal-like, reflexed, subtended by 6 to 

 9 small calycine bractlets. Petals 6, deflexed. Stamens 6, erect, 

 often closely appressed to the pistil, the anther connective produced 

 into a pointed tip. Pistil 1, stigma scarious-cupulate. Fruit a 

 follicle, dehiscent by the dorsal suture. Seeds arillate. (Capt. 

 George Vancouver of the English exploring ship Discovery, who 

 visited San Francisco Bay in 1792.) 



1. V. chrysantha Greene var. parviflora. Inside-out Flower. 

 Stems from a branched rootstock, clustered, sparsely pubescent with 

 short spreading gland-tipped hairs, or at base rusty-pilose, 8 to 20 in. 

 high; foliage glabrous, or rusty-pilose on the petiole at the forks; 

 leaflets green above, paler or whitened beneath, roundish in outline, 

 broadly cordate at base, obscurely or evidently 3-lobed, narrowly 

 cartilaginous-margined and often crenulate or crisped, £ to H in. 

 long; frequently broader than long, petiolulate; panicle loose, 2\ to 7 

 in. long, bearing 25 to 30 small white or lavender-tinged flowers; 

 petals 2 lines long; ovules 2 or 3. — (V. parviflora Greene.) 



Coast Ranges, in the shade of forests from the Santa Cruz Moun- 

 tains northward; Oakland Hills, acc. to Greene; Marin Co., Chesnut 



6 Drew; near Calistoga, Jepson. May. Leaves said to persist 

 through the winter, but flowering specimens from Calistoga exhibit 

 leaves that are nearly half perished. In some country districts called 

 "Flowering Fern." 



