1 am indebted to my kind correspondent, Mr H. Shep- 
herd, for the opportunity of representing this interesting spe- 
cies of Berberis, which was communicated by him to me, from 
the Botanic Garden at Liverpool, in full flower, early in April, 
and which he conjectured might be the B. ilicifolia of For- 
STER. That species, however, according to De Candolle, 
in his admirable history of the Genus, should bear its flowers 
in racemes ; and the present plant appears to me to accord in 
every particular with the B. heterophylla of that work, and of 
PoiRET. If I entertain any doubt as to its identity with 
the last-named plant, it is from the circumstance of the berry 
being described as 1 -seeded, whereas the germen, in the indi- 
vidual before us, is evidently furnished with many ovules. 
The present species certainly departs from the generic cha- 
racter of Berberis, as given by De Candolle, inasmuch as 
the calyx has no scales at the base; nor are the filaments desti- 
tute of teeth, for there are two most distinct ones just beneath 
the anther. I am aware that this is the character appropriated 
to Mahonia ; but besides the difference in habit, that genus 
has its petals without glands, which in the plant before us are 
as distinct as in any species of Bei^beris. 
B. heterophylla is, as well as B. ilicifolia, an inhabitant 
of the Straits of Magellan, where it was discovered by Com- 
merson ; but when, or by whom, it was introduced to our 
gardens, 1 cannot learn. It is a rare species, though its hardy 
nature, and the bright yellow of its flowers, as contrasted with 
the deep green of the leaves, would render it a desirable plant 
for the shrubbery. 
A. Portion of a plant, iiatural size. Fig. 1. Flower. Fig. 2. Petal, with its 
glands, and anther. Fig. 3. Stamen, with its valves closed. Fig. 4. 
Stamen with its valves expanded. Fig. 5. Pollen. Fig. 6. Pistil. 
Fig. 7. Germen, cut through transversely, to shew the ovules.— -More 
or less magnified. 
