450 HEXANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. Berberis. 
Ben-y-Macduich, and Brach-reach, on the highest summits, among the 
comminuted rock, by Mr. Don, and subsequently by Prof. Hooker. 
P. July. E.) 
BERBERIS. Calyx six-leaved: Petals six, with two glands 
to the claw: Style none : Perry superior, one-celled, 
opening at the end : Seeds two or three. 
B. vulga'ris. Fruit-stalks forming pendulous bunches: thorns three 
together : (serratures of the leaves bristly. E.) 
FI. Dan. 904 — Woodv. 234 — E. Bot. 49 — Mill. 63—Blackw. 165— Fuchs. 543 
— Trag. 993— Clus. i. 120. 2— Dod. 750— Lob. Obs. 559. 2— Ger. Em. 
1325—Park. 1559— J. B. i. 6. 54—Ger. 1144 —Lon. Ic. i. 46. 1. 
(A bushy shrub, ten to fifteen feet high ; stems pale, spinous. Leaves decidu¬ 
ous. E.) The first lea,ves inversely egg-shaped, between serrated and 
fringed, not jointed. Leaf-scales terminated on each side by a hair-like 
tooth. Stem-leaves alternate, the lowermost somewhat wing-cleft, with 
thorny teeth; the rest are changed into three-forked thorns. The secondary 
leaves in pairs, oblong, serrated. Between the lowermost leaves and the 
thorns are concealed lesser leaves. Thus, when the leaves of the present 
year are changed into thorns, others will succeed to take place of them in 
the next. Is there any instance analogous to this ? Linn. In search¬ 
ing for the nectaries at the base of the petals when the flower is fully 
expanded, if the filaments be ever so slightly touched, the anthers imme¬ 
diately approach the summit and burst with an explosion. With. Ed. i. 
When the anthers are thoroughly ripe, if the base of the filament be irri¬ 
tated with a pin, or a straw, the stamen rises with a sudden spring and 
strikes the anther against the summit of the pistil, affording a remarkable 
instance of one of the means used to perform the important office of 
impregnation. Mr. Whately, from Dr. Sims. See also Phil. Tr. 1788.* 
* (This singular vitality of fibre (something more than mere elasticity),which we denominate 
irritability, and which is particularly apparent in such plants as are called sensitive , has also 
excited the attention of that very ingenious experimentalist Kolreuter, who observes that 
the cells of the anthers do not split open lengthways, but that the outer coat detaches itself 
along the edges of the partition, which separates the two cells, and raising itself up with the 
greater portion of the pollen adhering to the inner surface, finally faces towards the stigma ; 
having the inner surface that fronts the stigma covered with pollen. It is by this beautiful 
expedient that nature has so completely succeeded in her object of fecundation by the 
emission of pollen ; for by this mode of opening of the anthers the stamens have gained so 
much in length, that they are enabled to reach with precision the stigma on which they are 
lo discharge their contents ; had the cells opened in the usual way, the stamens would have 
been too short for their intended functions. And here we may well exclaim with Cowley, 
“ If we could open and inbend our eye, 
We all, like Moses, should espy, 
Ev’n in a bush, the radiant Deity.” 
■When a stamen has gone through this movement, it draws the petal to the base of which 
it is fixed a little toward itself, and this is the reason why, when we have suddenly 
stimulated all the stamens of a flower that was before nearly expanded, we see it half closed 
again. The anthers are insensible to stimulus; the filaments evince most irritability 
nearest their bases. The phenomenon may be fully induced by a burning lens ; and when 
the flowers are electrified, and sparks are drawn from them by the approach of a metallic 
body, the stamens immediately spring toward the pistil. If it could happen that during 
the season of bloom the flowers were to remain uninfluenced by adventitious stimulus, the 
stamens would continue extended at their wonted distance from the pistil, and no fecunda¬ 
tion could take place. But let us see the means adopted by Divine Wisdom for insuring the 
fecundation of this useful vegetable. Each petal has near its base two oblong melliferous 
