Berberis Aquifolium, Pursh. Barberry Family.

Shrubs two to six feet high; branching. Leaves.—Alternate; pinnate. Leaflets.—Seven to nine; glossy; ovate to oblong-lanceolate; one and one half to four inches long; acuminate; sinuately dentate, with numerous spinose teeth; the lowest pair distant from the stem. Racemes.—Eighteen lines to two inches long; clustered near the ends of the branches. (Otherwise as B. nervosa.) Hab.—Coast Ranges and Sierras from Monterey and Kern County northward into Oregon.

The holly-leaved barberry, or Oregon grape, is a very ornamental shrub and one much prized in our gardens, where it is known as Mahonia Aquifolium. In the spring, when yellow with its masses of flowers; or in its summer dress of rich, shining green; or in the autumn, when its foliage is richly touched with bronze or scarlet or yellow, amid which are the beautiful blue berries, it is always a fine shrub. In its native haunts it affects greater altitudes than our other species.

[TWIN-BERRY—Lonicera involucrata.]

Among our Californian Indians, a decoction made from the root is a favorite tonic remedy, and it has become a recognized drug in the pharmacopœia of our Coast, being used as an alterative and tonic. The root is tough and hard, of a bright golden yellow, and intensely bitter. The bark of the root is the part that is used medicinally.

The shrub is very plentiful in the woods of Mendocino County, where it covers considerable areas.

SUNSHINE. FLY-FLOWER.

Bæria gracilis, Gray. Composite Family.

Six inches or so high; branching freely. Leaves.—Mostly opposite; linear; entire; an inch or so long. Flower-heads.—Yellow; of disk and ray-flowers. Rays.—Ten to fourteen; three or four lines long. Involucre.—Campanulate; of a single series of small lanceolate, herbaceous scales. Hab.—From San Francisco southward.