74 PENTANDRIA DIGYNIA. PauaX, 



PANAX. Schreh. 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 down ; 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 urabellets, 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 cvula in each, attached to the very top of the 

 partition. Style short. Stigma bidentate. 



