154 
EPIMEDIUM 
Camb. Brit. FI. iii. Plate 164. (a) Winter-twig. ( b ) Barren branch. ( c ) Flowering branch. (■ d ) Fruiting 
branch, a, b, and c from Cambridgeshire (A. S. S.) : 
d from Somerset (E. W. H.). 
Exsiccata : — Billot, 1408 ; Reichenbach, 1970, 
as B. vulgaris var. heterophyllus ; Thielens et Devos, 
ii, 102; Herb. FI. Ingric., viii, 29. 
Small shrub, up to about 2 m. high. Bark 
ashen-grey. Leaf -spines usually trifurcate 
except towards the apex of the branches, on 
the mature long shoots. Foliar-leaves on the 
short shoots, with a short petiole, the lateral 
leaflets suppressed ; the remaining terminal 
leaflet oboval, margin serrate, serratures rather 
bristly, obtuse, up to about 4 cm. long and 
1 -5 broad, those of the young wood alter- 
nate, showing transitional stages to spines. 
Inflorescence lateral, with about 8 — 16 flowers, 
drooping. Pedicels a little longer than the 
flowers. Flowers spreading, about 1 cm. in 
diameter when expanded, faintly odorous ; 
June. Petals yellow, with 2 orange-coloured 
glands at the base, entire. Stamens sensitive. 
Stigma sessile, wider than the ovary. Berries 
about 1 cm. in diameter, orange-red to red or 
entirely red, with a sour taste. 
In many parts of the country, as, for example, in 
Cambridgeshire, the barberry is less abundant than 
formerly. It was largely extirpated in the late eighteenth 
and nineteenth centuries when it was imagined that the 
rust ( Puccinia graminis) of wheat had of necessity to 
pass through one of its stages on its leaves. However, 
the rust, as is now known, may complete a life-cycle 
without the intervention of the barberry; and so the 
destruction of that plant was of little or no avail in 
keeping down the disease. 
Hedgerows, thickets, and borders of 
woods; throughout England, where it is 
perhaps indigenous in the south; recorded also for Wales and Scotland where it is probably not 
indigenous; not indigenous in Ireland. 
Scandinavia, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, France, central Europe, Russia (central and southern), 
southern Europe; Asia; North America (introduced). 
Genus 2. *Epimedium 
Epimedium [Tournefort Inst. 232, t. 117(1700);] L. Sp. PI. 117 0753 ) et Gen. PI. ed. 5, 53 0754 ); 
Prantl Pflanzenfam. iii, pt. 2, 74 et 75 (1891). 
Herbs with sympodial rhizomes. Leaves pinnate, ternate, or biternate. Petals (or nectaries) anti- 
sepalous. Flowers dimerous, protogynous. Style nearly as long as the ovary. Stigma small. Ovules 
00 , in 2 rows along the ventral suture. Fruit a capsule. Seeds large, with the raphe much enlarged 
towards the base. Embryo slightly curved. 
About 1 1 species ; Europe ; Asia ; northwestern Africa. 
1. ^EPIMEDIUM ALPINUM. Plate 165 
Epimedium Gerard Herball 389 ( 1 597 )- 
Epimedium alpinum L. Sp. PI. 1 17 (1753); Smith Eng. Bot. no. 438 (1797); PI. Brit. 187 (1800); 
Syme Eng. Bot. i, 73 (1863); Tischler op. cit. 650. 
leones Smith Eng. Bot. t. 438 ; Sibthorp et Smith FI. Graec. ii, t. 150; Reichenbach Icon, iii, t. 18, fig. 4485 - 
Camb. Brit. FI. iii. Plate 165. ( a ) Barren branch. (< b ) Flowering branch. ( c , d, e,f) Flowers. Cumberland 
(L. B.). 
