ARALIACEAE, 143 
stipule-scars; rounded or ovoid sometimes superposed buds with 
several exposed scales; moderately large petioled leaves; some- 
times imperfect small polypetalous or apetalous flowers axil- 
lary or in stalked head-like clusters; and rather small sometimes 
very sour blue or black inferior drupes. 
Leaves glossy, entire, (Pepperidge). N. sylvatica. 
Family ARALIACEAE. Aralia Family. 
A rather small family of little use except for plantations. 
The ivy is traditionally the best climbing plant where it can 
endure the climate. 
ACANTHOPANAX. 
Deciduous shrubs or stiff sparingly branched trees with 
more or less prickly bark; pale soft wood with a single ring of 
large ducts each year and tangential wavy wood-parenchyma 
bands; rounded homogeneous pale pith; alternate ovoid buds 
with several scales; crescent-shaped or linear leaf scars with 5 
or more bundle-traces; digitate or palmately lobed moderate- 
sized leaves, often clustered on spurs; small often monoecious 
greenish polypetalous flowers in umbels or panicles; and small 
berry-like fruit crowned by the calyx-teeth. 
i. Leaves simple: a tfee. A. ricinifolius. 
Leaves digitately compound: shrubs. 
2. Leaves green. . A. pentaphyllus. 
Variegated. A. pentaphyllus variegatus. 
ArALIA. Hercules’ Club. 
Deciduous large coarse shrubs or arborescent (herbaceous 
in other species), with very stout prickles; brownish zoned wood 
with small ducts, more crowded in the spring growth and slightly 
tangentially seriate later, and fine but distinct medullary rays; 
large crenate homogeneous pale pith; very stout terete twigs; 
alternate large U-shaped or linear leaf-scars half encircling the 
stem, with numerous bundle-traces in a single series; no stipule- 
scars; rounded buds with few pointed scales; very large decom- 
pound leaves; small white polypetalous perfect flowers in large 
showy panicles; and small inferior berries. 
