19 
hitherto grown in a pot in a cold frame, and seems impatient 
of much heat, from which I suspect it to be a native of high 
lands, and that it will ultimately prove as hardy as the well 
known Berberis glumacea, or B. fascicularis. To the latter it 
may be said to have some resemblance, but is less prickly and 
compact in its foliage, which is of a thinner texture with 
longer foot-stalks. Stem erect, round, pale brown, slightly 
striated, becoming of a deep reddish brown colour near the 
extremity of the shoots. Leaves consisting of from 2 to 4 pair 
of leaflets, but generally they seem to be 3-paired, ovate-acu- 
minate, about 2J inches long, and an inch broad, thin and 
rigid, of a bright shining green, excepting the margin which 
is a pale yellow, and furnished with moderately long, sharp, 
brownish spines. The leaflets themselves are almost sessile, 
attached to a round, wiry, deep green footstalk, varying from 
6 inches to a foot in length, swelling at the base and flattened 
so as to embrace the stem. Flowers produced on a round 
slender raceme, 9 inches long and of a brownish red colour, 
bearing on its upper half a dozen or more gracefully drooping, 
pale, straw-coloured globular flowers, each half an inch in dia- 
meter, and suspended by a very slender pedicell, about an 
inch long, with two minute acuminate bracts in the middle, 
and another somewhat larger at the base. Sepals of 12 divi- 
sions, roundish concave, pale yellow, arranged in four rows 
alternately round the base of the ovarium, — the outer row 
much smaller than the rest. Petals considerably narrower 
than the sepals, more erect and of deeper colour/ as well as 
slightly cut at the margin. Filaments of the same colour as 
the petals, and rather more than half their length, somewhat 
curved and flattened at the extremity so as to give the anther 
the appearance of being split into two distinct bodies. Ova- 
rium erect, nearly round and thick in proportion to its height, 
with a pale green stigma. Berries (globose, apparently 
purple. — J. L .)” 
For this communication, and a drawing of the plant itself, 
we are indebted to Mr. W. B. Booth. This species proves to 
be the B. pallida of Hartweg, found at La Majada, San Jose 
del Oro, Zacualtepan, Cardonal, and Atotonilco el Grande in 
the north-east of Mexico ; so that we conclude the species to 
about as hardy as Berberis fascicularis. It is at present a plant 
of extreme rarity, the two specimens at Carclew and one in 
the Garden of the Horticultural Society being, as far as we 
