Tab. 6340. 



OKEOPANAX Thibautii. 

 Native of Chiapas in Mexico. 



Nat. Ord. Araliaceje. — Series Hedere;];. 

 Genus Oreopanax, Dene, and Planch. [Benth. et Hook.f. Gen. Plant, vol. i. p. 940). 



Oreopanax Thibautii; glaberrima, foliis longe petiolatis pedatim 5-7-foliolatis. 

 foliolis petiolulatis anguste elliptico-lanceolatis v. oblanceolatis basi et apice 

 longe angustatis integerrimis glaberrimis, stipulis 0, capitulis J unc. diam. 

 breviter pedunculatis in racemum terminalem strictum minute stellato- 

 puberulum demum glabratum dispositis, bracteis minutis triangnlaribus acutis, 

 bracteolis floribus immixtis elongato-obcuneatis apice villosis, petalis 5. 



Aralia Thibautii, Hart. 



The genus Oreopanax, though so unlike our Ivy, is so 

 closely allied to it, that except by habit and locality I do 

 not see how the two are to be kept distinct. This remark 

 further applies to a host of genera of Araliacece, which, 

 when reduced to their technical characters of flower and 

 fruit, would be merged into one. As defined in the Genera 

 Plantaruin, Hedera is confined to the English Ivy, which 

 under various forms, extends all over the north temperate 

 regions of the old world, together with an Australian 

 representative with pinnate leaves ; the species of Oreopanax 

 on the other hand are very numerous, and are all natives 

 of the mountainous tropical regions of the new world, 

 extending from Mexico to Peru. 0. Thibautii is a native 

 of Pine forests in Chiapas, a province of Mexico, whence 

 I have seen specimens from Linden (No. 1651), and 

 Ghiesbrecht (No. 147). It is very closely allied to, and 

 perhaps only a variety of, B. Xalapensis, which has however 

 much larger flower-heads, with shorter stouter peduncles, and 

 rather broader leaflets. A third closely allied Mexican form 

 from Orizaba, has heads only a quarter of an inch in 

 diameter, on slender peduncles an inch long ; and a fourth 



JANUARY 1ST, 1878, 



