_Shrubs or herbs, with the sepals and petals both imbricated in the bud, usually in two rows of 3 (rarely 2 or 4) each; the hypogynous stamens as many as the petals and opposite to them; anthers opening by 2 valves or lids hinged at the top._ (Podophyllum is an exception, and Jeffersonia as respects the sepals in one row.) _Pistil single._ Filaments short. Style short or none. Fruit a berry or a pod. Seeds few or several, anatropous, with albumen. Embryo small, except in Berberis. Leaves alternate, with dilated bases or stipulate. [*] Petals and stamens 6. Fruit few-seeded. 1. Berberis. Shrubs, with yellow flowers and wood; a pair of glandular spots on the base of each petal. Fruit a berry. 2. Caulophyllum. Herb, with greenish flowers; petals thick, much shorter than the sepals. Ovary soon bursting; the two seeds left naked. 3. Diphylleia. Herb with white flowers; petals much longer than the sepals. Berry 2--4-seeded. [*][*] Petals 6--9. Stamens 8--18. Fruit many-seeded. Herbs. 4. Jeffersonia. Petals and stamens usually 8; anthers opening by uplifted valves. Pod opening by a lid. 5. Podophyllum. Petals 6--9. Stamens 12--18; anthers not opening by uplifted valves. Fruit a large berry. 1. BÉRBERIS, L. BARBERRY. Sepals 6, roundish, with 2--6 bractlets outside. Petals 6, obovate, concave, with two glandular spots inside above the short claw. Stamens 6. Stigma circular, depressed. Fruit a 1--few-seeded berry. Seeds erect, with a crustaceous integument.--Shrubs, with yellow wood and inner bark, yellow flowers in drooping racemes, sour berries, and 1--9-foliolate leaves. Stamens irritable. (Derived from _Berbêrys_, the Arabic name of the fruit.) 1. B. Canadénsis, Pursh. (AMERICAN BARBERRY.) Leaves repandly toothed, the teeth less bristly-pointed; _racemes few-flowered_; petals notched at the apex; _berries oval_; otherwise as in the next.--Alleghanies of Va. and southward; _not_ in Canada. June.--Shrub 1--3° high. B. VULGÀRIS, L. (COMMON BARBERRY.) Leaves scattered on the fresh shoots of the season, mostly reduced to sharp triple or branched spines, from the axils of which the next season proceed rosettes or fascicles of obovate-oblong closely bristly-toothed leaves (the short petiole jointed!), and drooping _many-flowered racemes_; petals entire; _berries oblong_, scarlet.--Thickets and waste grounds in E. New Eng., where it has become thoroughly wild; elsewhere occasionally spontaneous. May, June. (Nat. from Eu.) 2. CAULOPHÝLLUM, Michx. BLUE COHOSH.