BERBERIS DULCIS. 
(Sweet-fruited Berberry.) 
Class. 
HEXANDRIA. 
Order. 
MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
BERBERACEjE. 
Generic Character— Sepals six, guarded on the 
outside by three scales. Petals six, with glands on the 
inside of each. Stamens toothless. Berries two to three- 
seeded. Seeds two, rarely three, laterally inserted at the 
base of the berries, erect, oblong, with a crustaceous 
coat, and fleshy albumen ; cotyledons leafy, elliptical ; 
radicle long, capitellate at the top.— Son's Gard.8j Bot. 
Specific Character.— Plant a spiny evergreen shrub. 
Spines long, slender, simple, or three-parted. Leaves 
obovate, obtuse, with or without a bristly point, entire, 
glaucous on the under side. Floivcrs solitary, on slender 
stalks twice as long as the leaves, drooping. 
Our object in producing a figure of this beautiful shrub, which has now been 
in the country about thirteen years, is to show how very ornamental it is when 
covered with its handsome fruit, and to press our readers to cultivate it more, with 
a view to the production of that fruit. 
There are many of the species of this tribe, from the common Berberry to the 
more novel and showier Mahonias, which are extremely pleasing as fruit-bearing 
shrubs ; and, indeed, excite more interest in that character than they do while they 
are in flower. A large bush of the B. vulgaris, for example, grown upon an open 
lawn, is particularly attractive when laden with its numberless drooping racemes of 
pretty red berries ; and the fruit of some of the Mahonias has quite as rich an 
appearance as Grapes on a Vine, (only being much smaller,) with a yet more 
inimitable bloom. Indeed, the latter is so perfect that it is impossible to describe 
it either with the pen or the pencil. 
The species before us is an evergreen shrub, of a rigid habit, sometimes attaining 
the height of four or five feet, but more generally keeping about three feet high. 
Its branches are a little inclined to turn downwards towards the top, and bear a 
considerable number of spines, with clusters of small foliage. The flowers issue 
from amidst the tufts of leaves, and are solitary, drooping on long stalks, large, 
bright deep yellow, and more expanded than in some other species. They are 
succeeded by fine roundish berries, of a rich purple tint. The blossoms appear 
