BOTANICAL INDEX, 
45 
Fig. 184 . Berber is Canadensis. 
BERBERIS CANADENSIS. I’ursii. 
A ME me A N BAR BE RR Y. 
|T will hardly sound appropriate to the ears of a Southern New England farmer 
to tell of the beauties and value of one of the greatest pests on their farms, 
the common Barberry, but to the Horticulturist there are nevertheless many 
points of excellence in this, to them, noxious shrub. To the vegetable phy- 
siologist also there are many points of value, which we will briefly notice, 
and only regret our limited space to do the subject justice. 
Sir Joseph Paxton enumerates 59 species of Barberries, exclusive of the 5 or 6 re- 
cently described North American species, a portion of which, however, should be 
separated from the old Genus, (Berberries,) and placed in one of the. 2 new genera or 
subgenera, viz: Trilicina and Mahonia, all of which have evergreen and pinnated 
leaves. 
As B. canadensis is the only one we specially wish to treat of in this article, we 
will leave all other species for a future consideration. According to authors the 
name Berberry, or as it is commonly called Barberry, was adopted by science (and 
horticulturists'! from the Arabic name as applied to tliis particular genus of fruit, 
for the closely allied species, B. vulgaris, is one of the commonest fruits of Southern 
and Western Europe, Northern Africa and Asia Minor. It is usually thought to be 
the fruit referred to by Pliny, who says: “ There is a kind of thorny bush called 
Appendix, for that there be red berries hanging thereto, which be likewise named 
Apendices,” (Book 24, chapter 13). They are essentially a temperate zone genus of 
shrubs, not having been found within the tropics of South Africa, Australia or New 
