40 
BOTANICAL INDEX, 
Zealand, and only found in tropical South America on high elevations, (Andes- 
Mountain.) It is, however, found at the southern extremity of South America, a- 
well as as far north as latitude 56° in North America. 
Prof. Macoun, of the Canadian Government Survey, reports B. canadmsis on 
Vancouver’s Island, British Columbia, Peace River and Athabaska countries, Sas- 
katchewan Plains and Province of Ontario. He also reports B. recox , an allied spe- 
cies, as in British Columbia, Saskatchewan Plains and Labrador. They thrive in any 
thin, light, or almost barren soil, and when allowed to grow naturally (in a spread- 
ing bunch,) form very ornamental oval or circular thickets, usually from 5 to 7 feet 
high, and in autumn when in fruit are decidedly a handsome lawn ornament. The 
fruit from these natural growth hushes are of necessity small and very sour or even 
hitter, but if the shrub is planted in good soil and also trimmed up, i. e., all the suck- 
ers kept cut away, it will not only make a tall symmetrical and graceful growth, hut 
also produce larger and sweeter fruit in great abundance. In other words, cultiva- 
tion works the same mysterious wonders in the Barberry as in nearly all other kinds 
of fruits. Throughout all the mountainous portions of Eastern North America the 
common Barberry grows in more or less abundance, and until within the past few 
years was thought to be all of one species, and that one species, the old European B. 
vulgaris; but Dr. Asa Gray says there are- two distinct species growing in North 
America, B. canadensis a native, and B. vulgaris the foreign species, which so strongly 
resembles it, and which must have been introduced by the early colonist. They’, 
however, appear so similar to the average horticulturist that a description of one 
species will almost answer, at least to a large extent, for the other. The bush, when 
well established, throws up from the base numerous tough, spiny shoots, covered 
with a gray or whitish hark. The leaves are thin, deciduous, obovate toothed, 
eiliate on the margins, of a pleasant acid taste, and have been used for salad, and of 
a pale green color. But here the physiologist finds food for study. Associated with 
the leaves are also seen a few short, stout thorns, which we are told are only one 
condition of the same. How very strange, but let us investigate the subject a little. 
The foliage first produced on the young growth is apparently nothing more than 
a series of sharp prickles at the nodes where the leaves should be. These seemingly 
useless horny spines are in reality the primary leaves, and appear first on all the 
new growth and serve as a protection to the tender shoots while young. We will 
often find in examining them more carefully that the spaces between them at the 
bases are filled to a considerable extent by a membranous web of vegetable tissues, 
similar to the portion between the veins of an ordinary leaf. In others, however, 
it is scarcely visible, while in some it is not seen at all. In the subsequent leaves, 
this central spine runs the entire length of the leaf, as the mid-rib, and extending 
beyond the leaf margin still retains its sharp thorny points. The side prickles also 
(being multiplied by two as a rule) correspond to tile leaf veins of the subsequent 
or secondary leaves, which also extend beyond the leaf-margins. Fig. 184, from 
Gray’s Botanical works, illustrates the point in question much better than words can 
do. These prickles are not simply thorns in the ordinary meaning of the word, as 
applied to plants, but are an essential portion of the structure of the branch while 
young, and form the nucleus or starting point of the future leaf ; or to make the idea 
as plain as possible, we will say that the leaves all start from the bosom of these 
thorns. The bud of the secondary (true) leaves, starting from the centre of the 
primary ones, break up through the axil of the primary leaves, and as the particu- 
lar function of these spinous leaves are now completed, they mature, so to speak, 
and drop oil' during the second year. 
From the midst of the cluster of leaves of the last year's growth are produced 
during May, a curious but inconspicuous drooping stem (raceme) of yellow flowers, 
about three inches long. There are, however, many very interesting features about 
these flowers, but as we do not wish to be tedious we will only notice a few of them. 
At the base of each of the six petals are two parallel, oblong, yellow nectariferous 
glands. Pressed between these glands, and opposite to the middle of the petals, are 
the six stamens in a recumbent position, and back, close pressed upon the petals, 
when the flower first opens, but under the influence of the sun and the evapora- 
tion of some of the moisture from the glands, they soon free themselves with a sud- 
den jerk, striking the stigma, dislodging some of the pollen and completing its fer- 
tilization ; and, after remaining in an incurved position a short time, they gradually 
assume an erect position during the remainder of the period of blooming. The 
same effect is produced by irritating the stamen with a fine point; or, if it is brushed 
by an insect near the base of the inner side. The object of this motion 
seems plainly to be the dislodgement of the pollen from the cells of the anther, 
and its projection upon the stigma, (Gray’s Text Book, page 34fi). In wet weather, 
when the filaments have lost their elasticity, the phenomenon is scarcely percepti- 
ble. The same result attends the experiment of applying corrosive sublimate to the 
