260 ARALIACEAE. 
ARALIA. Angelica Tree. 
(Family Araliaceae). 
Small few-branched trees or ar- 
borescent shrubs with strong cor- 
(A tical prickles,—or other species 
iL herbaceous: deciduous. Twigs 
i very stout, terete: pith large, pale, 
| roundish, continuous. Buds ovoid- 
Peal ike conical, solitary, sessile, with few 
| Ve | GAZ scales. Leaf-scars alternate, U- 
\ shaped, fully half-encircling the 
| Hk } Val stem, low: bundle-traces about 5 
in a Single series: stipule-scars 
| lacking. (Dimorphanthus). 
My | Winter-character references: — 
| Aralia sinensis. Shirasawa, 248, 
pl. 4. A. spinosa. Schneider, f. 
ub 
The angelica tree, Hercules’ 
Club, tear-blanket, or monkey 
tree, as it is variously called, is 
one of the most tropical-looking 
of hardy woody plants because of 
its enormous twice- or thrice-pinnate leaves. If well grown 
it forms dense masses from the ground, and when it is killed 
back by an unusually severe winter this habit of growth is 
intensified. . 
Few plants present equally good leaf-scars for ready un- 
derstanding, and few present equally good examples of unmis- 
takable prickles,—representing neither modified leaves nor 
twigs, but outgrowths of the cortex. As with the devil’s club 
of the Northwest (Echinopanax horridum), the prickles are 
believed popularly to be poisonous. 
Branches gray-straw-colored, glabrous. A. spinosa. 
