Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-12-20
Barberrias.
Boston Transcript.


Boston Transcript.
No shrub of our coast region impresses
one with more decI led character of its
own than does the barberry. There are
two seasons of the year when it is
peculiarly attractive: when it blooms in
the early summer, and when its fruit
ripens in the late fall. Of the two the
berry is much more cons picuous than the
boom. This scarlet fruit has very near
Iy the hue. and almost the brilliancy. of
cardinal flower. So conspicuous food
must prove very attractive to birds, and
this is the reason given by modern
scientists for the fruit taking on so high
color that birds subsisting upon 1t
might distribute the seeds widely. The
author of a delightful little book on the
"Sagacity: and Mortality of Plants" has
some ingenious and entertaining ideas TO
offer on this point. He notes that, in
connection with the color of the fruit to
attract the birds, the first leaves are de-
veloped into spines, to keep the cattle or
| other animals from browsing on the
shrub. Here is provision for the widest
distribution of the plant and protection
| in it's growth. But despite all that
nature has done for the spread of the
shrub, it has secured but little territory
| as yet. The writer has never met it
| (although it may thus flourish in spots)
| growing wild on the coast of Maine or
the provinces, nor has it gone West TO
grow up with the country, except as it
mas been carried there and nUrtured as a
| garden plant. It is in this country con-
| fined to the coast, unless it should be
found indigenous upon the mountains.
1t is not easy to trace the origin and
history of such shrub as the barberry,
which has never been under cultivation,
and whose products have never been
articles of merchandise. From its occur
renee here it seems likely to have been
brought from England by the early set
| tiers. It was just such plant as they
were likely to bring, for its fruit and its
associations. 1t was connected with rur-
al life, and has secured place in the
| literature of the time. Mention of it is
frequentsin the poets. Haywood intro
duces 1t into play, written about the
time this province was settled. One of
the characters in The Fair Maid of the
West says to the King of Fee, "And for
the country's sake, which is called Bar
barry, I will love al BARRIERS and barber
ries the better" It may be added here
that the plant is most frequently spoken
|
indicates that its territory is restricted in
| that country, as well as in this, and
| furthermore that the shrub was intro
duced into Old England as into the new.
As said before, the history of such q
plant is not easy to trace, but It's habits
and manners argue an early home in the
mountains. Tt is no n after of surprise,
therefore, to learn that the author of
"The Roof of the World" found this
shrub growing vigorously in Thibet, at a
great elevation. So too, the autkoress of
the "IndiaR Alps" says "none of the
other mountains exhibit the faintest
| trace of vegetation, except that of the
leahess barberry, which grows in bushes
about foot and a hall. fromithe ground"
| This, | believe, was made at an elevation
| of $4,000 feet. The bushes are spoken of
as being covered with the rhine of frost.
Such hardihood is evidence Of their be-
| ing native to those mountains. If this
conjecture be correct, it Is more likely
the plant owes its distribution to man
than to birds. There are grounds for
believing the fruit TO have been favorite
with prehistoric man. So long a cours e
of independent living as this suppOsitiOn
implies will account for the sturdy per-
sistenoe with which the shrub sticks to
our rocky hillsides. 1t scorns the bland
ishments of garden life.
It has been suggested that the bar
berry may have been introduced here for
the yellow coloring extract obtainable
from its loot. In connection with this
point otk ers say that the plant is a favor
lite with the Chinese and japanese as
furnishing most valuable walking sticks.
These are priced for their yellow handles
carved from the root OF the shrub. If
there is any foundation for this report
it takes US far ahead historically. Yellow
was a sacred color with those eastern
people, and it connects this preference
for barberry canes with the worship OF
the sun. But leaving the twilight fields
OF conjecture for the actual history of the
barberry it may be a new fact to the
reader, and may pay him in part fol
reading so far, to learn that on the 21st
of December (Forefather's Day. 1854
the general court of this province passed
an act "to prevent damage to English
| grain arising from harbe-ry buShcso