74 PENTANDRIA DIGYNIA. Panax. 
PANAX. Schreb. gen. n. 1604. 
Calyx five-toothed. Corol five-petalled. Germ two- 
celled ; cells one-seeded, attachment superior. Berry infe- 
rior, two-seeded. Embryo inverse, and furnished with a 
perisperm. 
1, P. palmatum. R. 
Shrubby, armed. Leaves palmate, serrate. It is found 
indigenous in the moist vallies between the hills over 
the province of Chittagong, where it blossoms about the 
close of the rains in September. 
Stem in healthy plants now three years old, in the Bo- 
tanic Garden at Calcutta, three feet high, and as thick 
as a stout walking cane, very completely armed with 
numerous, straight, acute, brittle prickles ; and on the. 
tender young parts mixed with much appressed, short, 
harsh, ferruginous pubescence, which disappears by the 
time the parts become ligneous. Branches few and like 
the stem, Leaves alternate, petioled, nearly round, pal-— 
mate, serrulate, smooth and firm; when very young 
densely clothed with ferruginous avert ; lobes from three- 
angular to broad-lanceolate, acute ; length and breadth 
of the whole leaf about twelve inches, say from six to 
eighteen. Petioles nearly as long as the leaves, unarmed, 
columnar base thick or somewhat stem-clasping, and a 
small acute, stipulary process on each side. Racemes 
lateral, solitary, bearing from twenty to thirty, diverging, 
peduncled, globular umbellets, of small white flowers. 
Bractes tern at the base of each peduncle ; some smaller 
on the peduncles and one still smaller under the insertion 
of each pedicel on their little globular receptacle ; they 
are all ferruginous. Calyx minute, and minutely five- 
toothed. Petals five, lanceolar, spreading. Filaments five, 
alternate with the petals, and rather longer. Anthers o- 
vate, two-lobed, Germ inferior, turbinate, two-celled, 
with one ovula in each, attached to the very top of the 
partition. Style short. — bidentate. 
