684 Araliaceae. 
simple, digitate or pinnately compound, sometimes very large, the 
rhachis often articulate, the petiole dilated at the base or the dila- 
tations united in an intrapetiolar stipule. Flowers small, often 
greenish or purple, in umbels heads or rarely racemes, which are 
usually disposed in large terminal racemes or panicles, the umbels 
rarely solitary or in compound umbels. Bracts usually small and 
often inconspicuous or none. Flowers frequently polygamous, the 
ovary entirely abortive in the males, the stamens often smaller or 
rarely wanting in the females. 
With the exception of a very few species in the temperate regions of 
the northern and southern hemispheres, the Order is confined to the tropics 
in the New as well as in the Old World. — Generally speaking, Araliaceae 
differ from Umbelliferae by their tall shrubby or arborescent habit, large 
leaves, paniculate inflorescence, valvate petals, entire disk and drupaceous 
fruits, but every one of these characters breaks down in some exceptional 
ease, and some have proposed to unite the two Orders. 
377. Hedera Linn. 
Calyx-border slightly prominent, entire or sinuate-toothed. 
Petals 5, valvate. Stamens 5. Disk convex, sometimes very prominent. 
Ovary 5-celled. Styles united into an obtuse cone or very short 
cylindrical style, with 5 scarcely prominent stigmas. Fruit nearly 
globular, with 5 1-seeded pyrenes. Seed with a furrowed or ruminated 
albumen. — Woody climbers or trees. Leaves entire, lobed or 
pinnately compound. Flowers umbellate, not articulate on the pedicel, 
the umbels pedunculate on terminal panicles. 
A small genus, containing only a single Australian species besides the 
following one. 
972. Hedera Helix I. Spec. Plant.I (1753), p. 290. — Boiss. 
‘lor. Or. I, p. 1090. — Ic. Engl. Bot. tab. 1267. — Aschers.-Schweinf. 
fll. Flor. d’Eg., p.82. — A woody, evergreen climber; when wild 
the lower, slender branches spread along the ground, with small 
leaves, whilst the main stems climb up trees, rocks, or buildings 
to a great height, adhering by means of small rootlike excrescences. 
Leaves thick and shining, ovate, angular, or 3- or 5-lobed; those 
of the barren stems usually much more divided than the upper ones. 
Flowering branches bushy, projecting a foot or two from the climbing 
stems, each bearing a short raceme or panicle of nearly globular 
umbels. Flowers of a yellowish-green. Borders of the calyx entire, 
scarcely prominent, about half-way up the ovary. Petals 5, broad 
and short. Stamens 5. Styles united into a single very short one. 
Berry smooth and black, with from 2—5 seeds, the albumen 
deeply wrinkled. 
