_Barberry Family_
Shrubs or herbs with alternate or basal leaves, with or without
stipules, and solitary or racemed, mostly terminal flowers; sepals and
petals generally overlapping in several series; stamens as many as the
petals and opposite them; flowers perfect.
[Sidenote: =Berberis aquifolium= Pursh. _Trailing Mahonia._]
A smooth, trailing shrub. Leaves petioled, pinnate, leaflets 3—7,
ovate or oval, oblique, obtuse, truncate or slightly cordate at the
base, sessile thick, persistent, finely veiny, 1—2 inches long, with
spine-bearing teeth. Flowers yellow, in several erect, dense, terminal
racemes; berry globose, blue or purple.
A straggling shrub with spiny glossy dark green leaves, which change to
beautiful tints of scarlets and yellows during midsummer and autumn.
Frequent in the Rockies in woods; flowering in June.