BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. 
21 
they are young. The root and bark of the Berberry are used for dyeing yellow. One of the most remarkable 
circumstances respecting this plant is, that it has the reputation of being injurious to corn, and infecting it with 
a kind of mildew, if it grows near a wheat field; and this is so firmly believed by some farmers, that they will 
not suffer a single Berberry to remain in the hedges of their arable lands. The origin of this strange fancy is, 
that the leaves of the Berberry are very often attacked with a kind of fungus or mildew, as it is called, and that 
the corn is very often destroyed by another kind of mildew or blight, which is also a fungus. The two plants 
are, however, quite distinct; the Berberry fungus (JEcidium Berberidis ) being one of the kinds of fungi which 
form on the outside of the epidermis of the leaf, while the corn mildew (Puccinia graminis) is one of the fungi 
which form under the epidermis, and only burst through it when ripe. The leaves of the Berberry are 
handsome, and they have a finely serrated margin, but the smell of the flowers is unpleasant. As Bishop 
Mailt says . « S eC) spines, and saw-like leaves among 
The Berberry’s yellow bunches hung, 
Whose stamens, as with life endued, 
Shrink from the touch of fingers rude ; 
And, shrinking, on the pistil’s head, 
The fructifying pollen shed. 
Of aspect pleasiug, but of scent 
Which the smell loves not, redolent.” 
GENUS II. 
THE BARRENWORT. (Epimedium, Lin.) 
Lin. Syst. TETRANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
Generic Character. —Sepals 4, with two bracteola:. Petals 4, with a scale at the base. Pod oblong, two-valved, one-celled, many- 
seeded. Herbaceous plants, with compound leaves. ( Lindley .) 
Description, &c. —Only one species in this genus is a native of Britain. The name of Epimedium was 
used by Dioscorides, but its origin is not known : as it signifies upon the middle, it is supposed to allude to 
the position of the leaves, which are so deeply cordate, and are so raised above the stem, as to appear attached 
to their footstalks by the middle. The name of Barrenwort alludes to some supposed medicinal virtues in the 
plant. The Epimedium, though its flowers are very unlike those of the Berberry, is placed in the same natural 
order, because it has a stamen in the centre of each petal, and because the construction of the anthers is the 
same, for the cells open by two valves, which spring back when ripe, and curl upwards, suffering the pollen to 
escape. The plant is placed in the Linnman class and order Tetrandria Monogynia, because it has four stamens, 
and only one seed vessel —tetra signifying four. 
1. —THE ALPINE BARRENWORT. (Epimedium alpinum, Lin.) 
Engravings.— Eng. Bot., t. 438; 2d ed., t.226 ; and our fig. 3, I Specific Character. — Radical leaves none ; stem leaves twice 
' n PI- 4- I ternate. (Smith.) 
Description, &c. —This plant is a doubtful native ; but it is occasionally found wild in mountainous woods 
in the North of England and Scotland. It is a curious little plant, creeping along the ground, with numerous 
slender succulent stems rising from six inches to a foot high. The flowers appear very early in spring, and the 
seeds soon ripen ; but very shortly afterwards, both the leaves and stems wither, so that the whole plant 
disappears, till it is revived by the following spring. 
