BERBAIS, barberry, in botany, a ge nus of the Ilexandria Monogynia class and order. Essential character : calyx six-leaved ; petals six, with two glands at the style none; berry two-seed ed. There are four species, of which B. vulgaris is a shrub rising to the height of eight or ten feet. It is a native of eastern countries, and found in most parts of Eu rope, in woods, coppices, and hedges. In England, chiefly in a chalky soil, as par ticularly about Saffron Walden in Essex. The leaves of this shrub are gratefully acid. The smell of the flowers is offen sive when near, but pleasant at a certain distance. The berries are so very acid that birds seldom touch them. They are pickled, and used for garnishing dishes; and being boiled with sugar, form a most agreeable jelly. The roots, boiled in lye, yield a yellow colour; and in Poland they dye leather of a fine yellow with the bark of the root. The inner bark of the stems. also will dye linen of a fine yellow, with the assistance of alum. Insects of vari ous kinds are remarkably fond of the flow. ers of barberry. Linnmus observed long since, that when bees in search of honey touch the filaments, the anthers approxi mate to the stigma, and explode the pol len. Dr. Smith has given the following particular account of this curious pheno menon. The stamens of such flowers as are open bend back to each petal, and shelter themselves under their concave tips. No shaking of the branch has any effect upon them ; but if the inside of the filaments be touched with a small stick, they instantly spring from the petal, and strike the anther against the stigma. The outside of the filament has no irritability, nor has the anther itself any ; as may ea sily be proved by touching either of them with a blunt needle, a fine bristle, a fea ther, or any thing which cannot injure the structure of the part. If a stamen be bent
to the stigma, by means of a pair of scis sors applied to the anther, no contraction of the filament is produced. From all this it is evident, that the spring of the stamens is owing to an high degree of ir ritability in the side of the filament next the germ, by which, when touched, it con tracts, that side becomes shorter than the other, and consequently the filament is bent towards the germ. This irritability is perceptible in all ages; in flowers only so far expanded as to admit a bristle ; and in old flowers ready to fall off. If the germ be cut off, the filaments will still contract, and nothing being in their way, will bend over quite to the opposite side of the flower. After irritation, the sta mens will return to their original place. On being touched,they will contract with the same facility as before ; and this may be repeated three or four times. The purpose which this contrivance of nature answers is evident. In the original posi tion of the stamens, the anthers are shel tered from rain by the concavity of the petals. Thus probably they remain, till some insect coming to extract honey from the base of the flower, thrusts itself be tween the filaments, and almost unavoid ably touches them in the most irritable part : thus the impregnation of the germ is performed ; and as it is chiefly in fine sunny weather that insects are on the wing, the pollen is also in such weather most fit for the purpose of impregnation.