104 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
Having now given what we hope will be found explicit directions for the 
culture of pot Vines, we will merely add that these formulae are practised, and 
fully carried out, at the gardens of J. T. Drake, Esq., of Shardeloes Park, 
Amersham, where examples may be seen during the season. 
The pit for forcing the Vines in should be 30 feet long, and 19 feet 6 inches 
wide. There should be a path 1 yard wide up the middle of it, bordered by 
nine-inch walls, which would give two pits, each 7 feet 6 inches wide. These 
should have a flow and return pipe surrounding them. 
Amersham . Henry Bailey, C.M.E.H.S. 
BOTANY FOR BEGINNERS. 
Lesson IV. 
The subject of this lesson shall be the Berberry (Berberis vulgaris, Jig. 1). 
Select one of its pendant bunches of flowers, and examine one of the small 
flowers of which the bunch is composed (Jig. 1, a). You notice first the exterior 
envelope of six yellowish leaves (Jig. 3), on the outside of which there is a 
small supernumerary 
envelope of three 
scales. When you 
have removed these 
nine leaves, which 
are detached freely 
from the support, 
you meet with six 
other leaves of a 
vivid yellow (Jig. 4), 
which cannot be re¬ 
moved without tear¬ 
ing them. Observe 
at the base of each 
of these leaves, on 
the inner surface, 
two small scales of 
an orange colour; of 
the nature of these 
we shall see pre¬ 
sently. 
When this last en¬ 
velope of the flower 
has been removed, 
there remain six sta¬ 
mens, placed, like 
the leaves, on the 
support, and grouped 
round the central or¬ 
gan, which, at first, 
is in the form of 
a spindle, becoming 
rounder with age, 
and of the shape of 
an oval ball. This 
central body is crowned by a pretty large crest, which is intended to receive 
Eig. 1.—Berberis vulgaris, a Flower, b Fruit. 
