BER'BERIS CHINEN'SIS. 
CHINESE BARBERRY. 
Class. Order. 
HBXANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
berberacea:. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Habit. 
Introduced 
China. 
5 feet. 
May, June. 
Shrub. 
in 1815. 
No. 957. 
Berberis, or wildberry, according to the language 
of Arabia, is a name of antiquity, the use of which 
was continued by the herbalists, and subsequently 
adopted by modern writers. Gerard says ‘‘ It is 
called in shops Barbaries, of the corrupted name 
Amyrberis.” What species of plant originally bore 
this appellation is now mere matter of conjecture. 
The present very showy shrub is amongst the 
most valuable of the whole genus ; it is more dwarf 
than vulgaris, and a more abundant flowerer than 
any Barberry hitherto introduced ; indeed it would 
be difficult to conceive how a shrub could be more 
copiously decked with floral beauty — its every 
branch drooping as it were with a solid mass of 
golden blossoms. It is, too, as hardy as the com- 
mon Barberry of our shrubberies; and may be 
propagated from layering, and from seeds. It has 
much of the character and quality of the common 
Barberry — a plant in greater estimation in former 
years it would seem than at present. However 
useful as well as beautiful its fruit and flowers are 
still acknowleged to be, our forefathers contented 
themselves not with these alone, for the foliage of 
240 . 
