is yellow inside, and for its three-forked spines.
Provincially it is also termed Pipperidge-bush, from "pepin," a pip,
and "rouge," red, as descriptive of its small scarlet juiceless fruit,
of which the active chemical principles, as well as of the bark, are
"berberin" and "oxyacanthin." The sparingly-produced juice of the
berries is cooling and astringent. It was formerly held in high
esteem by the Egyptians, when diluted as a drink, in pestilential
fevers. The inner, yellow bark, which has been long believed to
exercise a medicinal effect on the liver, because of its colour, is a
true biliary purgative. An infusion of this bark, made with boiling
water, is useful in jaundice from congestive liver, with furred
tongue, lowness of spirits, and yellow complexion; also for
swollen spleen from malarious exposure. A medicinal tincture (H.)
is made of the root-branches and the root-bark, with spirit of wine;
and if given three or four times a day in doses of five drops with
one tablespoonful of cold water, it will admirably rouse the liver to
healthy and more vigorous action. Conversely the tincture when of
reduced strength will stay bilious diarrhoea. British farmers dislike
the [43] Barberry shrub because, when it grows in cornfields, the
wheat near it is blighted, even to the distance of two or three
hundred yards. This is because of a special fungus which is
common to the Barberry, and being carried by the wind reproduces
itself by its spores destructively on the ears of wheat, the
AEcidium Berberidis, which generates Puccinia.

Clusius setteth it down as a wonderful secret which he had from a
friend, "that if the yellow bark of Barberry be steeped in white
wine for three hours, and be afterwards drank, it will purge one
very marvellously."

The berries upon old Barberry shrubs are often stoneless, and this
is the best fruit for preserving or for making the jelly. They
contain malic and citric acids; and it is from these berries that the
delicious _confitures d'epine vinette_, for which Rouen is famous,
are commonly prepared. And the same berries are chosen in
England to furnish the kernel for a very nice sugar-plum. The
syrup of Barberries will make with water an excellent astringent
gargle for raw, irritable sore throat; likewise the jelly gives famous
relief for this catarrhal affection. It is prepared by boiling the
berries, when ripe, with an equal weight of sugar, and then
straining. For an attack of colic becau