Curtis Botanical – Plate 8857 – Dark-fruited Barberry

Original antique black-and-white botanical print from Curtis's Botanical Magazine — Plate 8857.

Plant: Berberis Atrocarpa (Dark-fruited Barberry). Native to: China (Yunnan / Sichuan).

Produces berberine — one of the oldest plant medicines, still used today. Medieval English law required barberry hedges around grain fields. Then it was discovered the plant harbored wheat rust fungus and destroyed harvests. Parliament ordered them all ripped out. A plant that was mandatory and then banned.

Printed in London. Each print is an original page removed from a bound volume of Curtis's Botanical Magazine, the world's oldest continuously published botanical journal (founded 1787). Uncolored plate. Sold individually. Minor age-related toning consistent with 19th-century paper.

This plate originated with the Royal Horticultural Society and passed through Wheldon & Wesley, one of the great natural history dealers of the 20th century. We came into the archive by accident and have spent the time since trying to share it as widely as we can.