There are several kinds of Vancouveria, perennial herbs with slender, creeping rootstocks; named after Vancouver the explorer.
Inside-out Flower, Barrenwort
Vancouvèria parviflòra
White, lilac
Spring
Wash., Oreg., Cal.
A charming woodland plant, its airy flower cluster, which has much the effect of an Alum-root, in beautiful contrast to the crisp, evergreen foliage. The large leaves are all from the root, with wiry, purplish leaf-stalks and beautifully-shaped leaflets, each an inch or more broad, pale on the under side, the older leaves dark, rich green, leathery and very glossy and the younger ones bright apple-green and thinner in texture. They form a handsome cluster, varying a good deal in size, and the general effect suggests some very crisp and sturdy sort of Maidenhair Fern. The stem is from one to two feet tall, wiry, purplish, and hairy, and bears a very loose cluster of tiny, drooping, white or lilac-tinged flowers. The six, white sepals resemble petals; the six, white petals are smaller than the sepals, lined with yellow, and there are six to nine bracts, resembling sepals, and six stamens. The minute buds are purplish and the little flowers are exceedingly pretty and odd, when we examine them closely, for the sepals turn back so abruptly from the tiny petals, and from the projecting cluster of stamens, that the name Inside-out Flower is appropriate. The fruit is a kind of capsule with many seeds. This grows in shady woods, especially among redwoods, up to seven thousand feet. V. hexándra has thinner leaflets, not evergreen, and the leaflets of V. chrysántha have white margins.
Inside-out Flower—Vancouveria parviflora.
There are many kinds of Barberry, widely distributed; shrubs, with yellow wood; the leaves often spiny and the flowers yellow; the sepals six to nine, with bracts and resembling petals; the petals six, in two overlapping rows, each with two glands at the base; the stamens six, with anthers that open by little valves like trap-doors, hinged at the top, sensitive and, when they are touched, closing around the shield-shaped stigma; the fruit a berry, with one or few seeds.
Oregon Grape, Trailing Barberry
Bérberis rèpens
Yellow
Spring
Cal., Ariz., Utah, Nev.
This does not look much like the common cultivated kinds of Barberry, for it grows close to the ground in a straggling bunch. In favorable situations it is a handsome and conspicuous plant. The leaves, with from three to seven leaflets, are stiff, prickly, and evergreen like Holly, and the yellow flowers are in clusters at the ends of the stems, with opposite bracts. The six sepals, petals, and stamens are all opposite, that is, with a petal in front of each sepal and a stamen in front of each petal. In Arizona the flowers are rather small and the clusters short, but in Utah they are far handsomer, rich golden-yellow and sweet-scented, forming clusters two inches long. The fruit is a handsome blue berry with a "bloom," the color of wild grapes, contrasting well with the foliage when it turns red in the autumn, and delicious jelly is made from them. B. aquifòlium, of Oregon and Washington, is similar, with much more beautiful, very shining leaves. B. Féndleri, of the Southwest, is from three to six feet high, the branches smooth and shiny as if varnished, the leaves with smooth edges or spiny teeth, and the flowers in numerous drooping clusters. The calyx has conspicuous, red bracts and the berry is red.