OdTOBER 14. THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 21 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M 
w 
OCTOBER 14—20, 18.52. 
Weather near London in 1851. 
Sun 
Sun 
1 
Day of 
Year. 
D 
D 
Barometer. .Thermo. Wind. Rain in In. 
Kises. 
Sets. 
R. & S. 
Age. 
Tcf. Sun. 
14 
Tn 
Lady-bird hybernates. 
1 
29.928 — 29.841 62—44 
W. 
03 
25 a. 6 
7 a. 5 
6 a 7 
1 
14 
1 
288 
15 F 
Gossamer abundant. 
29.430—29.3361 56—32 
W. 
34 
26 
5 
6 35 
2 
14 
14 
289 
16 S 
I\Iartin last seen. 
29.606 — 29.502 57—28 
S.W. 
— 
28 
3 
7 7 
3 
14 
26 
290 
17 Sdm 
18 Sdndayaftek Trinity. 
29.894 — 29.802 57—36 
W. 
— 
30 
1 
7 49 
4 
14 
33 
291 
]8 M 
St. Luke. 
29 . 941 — 29.742 59—52 
S.W. 
01 
32 
IV 
8 43 
5 
14 
50 
292 
19 Tu 
Virginian Creeper leaves fall. 
30.011 —29.930j 62—55 
S.W. 
01 
33 
67 
9 44 
3 
15 
0 
293 
SOW 
Hen Chaffinches flock. 
30.080 — 30.045' 64—55 
w. 
35 
65 
10 53 
7 
15 
10 
294 
Meteorology of the Week.—A t Chiswick, from observations durin|r the last twenty-five years, the averape highest and lowest tempera- 
tures of these days are .'>8.7° and 41.8° respectively. The greatest heat, 76 , occurred on the 14th in 1845 j and the lowest cold 
in 1850. During the period 101 days were fine, and on 74 rain fell. 
24°, 
on the 15th 
BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. 
BEEBEEIDS.—BEEBEEIDACE.E. 
CuAEACTEES OF THE Oedee.— Sepals 3, 4, C, deciduous, 
in a double row, surrounded externally by petal-like scales. 
Petals below the seed-vessels, either equal to the sepals 
in number, and opposite to them, or twice as many, generally 
with an appendage at the base in the inside. Stamens equal 
in number to the petals, and opposite to them; anthers 
generally with two sejiarate cells, opening elastically with 
a valve from the bottom to the top. Ovarium solitary, one- 
celled ; stylo rather lateral; stiyma globular. Fruit berried or 
capsular. Seeds attached to the bottom of the cell on one 
side, 1, 2, or 3 ; albumen between fleshy and horny ; embryo 
straight in the axis. Shrubs or herbaceous pterennial plants, 
for the most part smooth. 
IBeebeeis : Berberry ; BarbeiTy. 
Geneeic Chaeactee. — Calyx below seed-vessel, of six 
spreading, reversed egg-shaped, concave, colom'ed, deciduous 
leaves; the three outer ones smallest. Petals six, opposite 
to the calyx, and not much longer, roundish-egg-shaped, 
concave, spreading, deciduous; the short claw of each 
bearing internally two oblong, more deeply coloured, pro¬ 
bably, honey-bearing glands. Filaments linear, flattened, 
blunt, opposite to the petals, but shorter, attached to the 
base of each. Anthers of two separate lobes, on the opposite 
edges of the summit of the filament, each opening by a valve, 
from the bottom upwards. Oermcn oblong-oval. Style none. 
Sliyma single, globular, broader than the germen, acutely 
bordered, permanent. Perry oblong, blunt, of one cell, pulpy, 
opening at the top. Seeds two or tliree, oblong, cylindrical, 
erect, attached by short stalks to the lower part of the cell. 
Beebeeis vulgaeis : Barberry;'Bipperidge Bush. 
Description. —It is a deciduous shrub attaining the height 
of eight or ten feet. Stems upright, branched, bark ash- 
coloured, slightly grooved, yellow inside, armed with sharp 
thorns, usually in threes. The first leaves are reversed egg- 
shaped, finely tooth-edged. Stipules terminating in a hair¬ 
like tooth. Stem-leaves alternate, the lowest slightly lobed, 
with spiny teeth. Secondary leaves in pairs, oblong, and saw- 
edged, and between the lower leaves and the thorns ai'c 
No. OCX!., VoL. IX. 
smaller leaves. Flowers towards the end of the branches, 
in drooping bunches, or racemes, with a bracte to each 
flower-stalk. Petals yellow, frequently saw-edged, with two 
orange-coloured nectaries at their base. Anthers roundish 
and yellow. Stiyma greenish. Berries at first green, but 
when ripe a brilUant scarlet, cylindric-egg-shaped, rather 
bent, with a brown perforated projection at the end, and 
very acid. Seeds usually two, rarely three, loose in the 
berry, except slightly fastened to it at the bottom, oblong, 
thicker at the top, smooth, reddish, and har’d. 
There are many varieties, some being without seeds ; 
others with white, yellow, purple, or black berries. 
Places where found. —In hedges, and on bushy, chalky- 
soiled hills. 
Time of flowering. —May and Juire. 
History. —Its British name is the I’ipridge, or Bipperidge ; 
the Botanical one, and its corruption. Barberry, being bor¬ 
rowed frfim the jlrabic. When the anthers are thoroughly 
ripe, if the base of the filament be irritated with a pin, 
or a bristle, the stanren rises with a sudden spring and 
strikes the anther against the summit of the pistil, affor¬ 
ding a remarkable irrstance of one of the means used to 
perform the important ofiice of impregnation. This sin¬ 
gular vitality of fibre, which we denominate irritability, and 
which is particularly apparent in srtch plants as are called 
sensitive, excited the attention of that very ingenious ex¬ 
perimentalist 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 sur¬ 
face, 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 to dis¬ 
charge their contents ; had the cells opened in the usual way, 
the stamens would have been too short for their intended 
functions. And here wo may well exclaim with Cowley, 
“ If we could open and inbend our eye, 
We all, like Moses, sbould espy, 
Ev’n in a bush, the radiant lleity.” 
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 stimu¬ 
lated all the stamens of a flower that was before nearly ex¬ 
panded, we see it half closed again. The anthers are 
insensible to stimulus ; the filaments evince most irritability 
nearest their base. 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 fecundation 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 honey-bearing glands. Between 
every two of these glands a stamen is placed, so that when¬ 
ever an insect (of which abundance present themselves in 
the course of a day, beetles, flies, bees, and waspis, seeking 
