98 
BERBERIS ARISTATA. 
Aristate Barberry. 
HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA.— Nat. Ord. BERBERIDES. 
Gen. Char. — Calyx hexaphyllus (squamis 3 extus stipata). Petala sex, in- 
tus biglandulosa. Antherce valvis dehiscentes. Bacca monolocularis, di- 
tri- (poly-) sperma. — DC 
Berberis aristata; spinis simplicibus tripartitisve, foliis coriaceis ob- 
ovato-oblongis ciliato-dentatis (integerrimisque), racemis compositis 
nutantibus multifloris, petalis emarginatis. 
B. aristata, De Cand. Syst. Veg. v. ii. p. 8. 
" B. chitn'a, Buchan. in Herb, Linn." — Bot. Reg. t. 729. 
B. sinensis, Desf. Cat. 1804, p. 150. ? — ^De Candolle, Regn. Veg. v. ii. 
p. 8. 
The jtofvering plants in our garden scarcely exceed two feet in height, branch- 
ed, the branches erect, brown, terete, their new shoots almost red. Leaves 
in clusters of four or five, dark green, (in the young shoots pale green, 
and margined with red), coriaceous, nerved, reticulated when dry, ob- 
longo-obovate, attenuated at the base, acute at the extremity, their mar- 
gins more or less ciliato-dentate, in some varieties occasionally quite en- 
tire. At the base of each cluster of leaves is a single or trifid spine, ha- 
ving its segments spreading, of a greenish colour inclining to red, suc- 
culent when young ; when old hard and brown. 
From the centre of several of these clusters of leaves arises a drooping ra- 
ceme, about four inches long, with the pedicels branched and forked, each 
of the ramifications of a reddish colour, swollen at the extremity and at 
the base, the latter being invested with numerous, small, acute, bright 
red bracteas. Flower large, drooping, having externally at the base four 
or six concave deciduous bracteas, red in the outer ones, the innermost 
yellow, and gradually assuming the shape of the leaflets of the calyx. 
Calyx of six leaves, alternately larger, yellow, entire. Corolla of six re- 
gular, nearly erect, ovate, concave petals, with two folds or plicae with- 
in, two small, honey-bearing glands near the base, and notched at the 
top. Stamens six, one within each petal, yellow. Filament stout, pro- 
truded beyond the cells of the Anther, which are placed on each side of 
the filament, and open by valves which fly upwards to permit of the es- 
cape of the Pollen. Germen oblong, green. Style extremely short, thick. 
Stigma large, thick, greenish, peltate. 
VOL. II. 
