But I am not clear that many of them touch the berries.

At least, these hang on the bushes over winter in the greatest abundance.

Perhaps the barberry belongs to a warmer country than north of Europe, and finds itself more at home in our sunny summers.

Yet out of New England it seems not to spread at all.
Maruta Cotula, fide Engelmann, is a scattered and rather scarce plant in Germany.

Here, from Boston to St.Louis, it covers the roadsides, and is one of our most social plants.