92 FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND. [ Araliacee. 
An Australian and South American genus, of which one species inhabits New Zealand, and is a small herb 
with radical, pinnate, much-cut leaves, and an erect scape, bearing a solitary simple umbel. Calyx limb obsolete. 
Petals incurved at the apex, pilose at the back. Fruit linear-oblong, nearly terete. Carpels plano-convex, with 
five thick ribs, one vitta between each, and two at the commissure. Seed plane or slightly hollow in front, not 
grooved deeply or subconvolute.—De Candolle and Endlicher both describe the seed of this genus as deeply grooved 
and subconvolute on the commissural face, whence it is placed in the tribe Scandicinee. Such is not the case with 
the New Zealand species, nor with any others I have examined, nor with those which De Candolle has himself 
figured (under the name of Caldasia), and the genus should therefore be placed in his tribe Sesedinee, where it will 
rank more naturally than in that in which it has been placed. (Name from opos, a mountain, and Myrrhis, the name 
of an allied plant.) 
1. Oreomyrrhis Colensoi ; glabra v. pilosa, caulibus laxis elongatis v. dense ceespitosis depressis, 
petiolis gracilibus, foliis pinnatis, pinnis multijugis oppositis petiolatis v. sessilibus oblongis inciso- 
pinnatifidis, segmentis ovatis linearibusve acuminatis, scapis erectis v. decumbentibus laxe pubescenti- 
pilosis pilis superne reflexis, involucri foliolis ovatis obtusis, floribus sessilibus, fructibus pedicellatis. 
Haz. Northern Island. Mountainous places on the east coast and in the interior, Colenso. 
A very variable smooth or pilose herb, with a slender, simple, perennial root, that becomes stout and much 
divided, giving off many very short leafy stems, densely covered with the sheaths of old leaves ; in alpine localities 
the whole plant is very stunted and depressed. Leaves all radical, pinnate, very numerous, 2-6 inches long ; petiole 
very slender. Pinnules uniform, opposite, sometimes again pinnate, petiolate, or sessile, 2—4 lines broad, broadly 
oblong, inciso-pinnatifid; segments ovate, sharp. Scapes several, short when in flower, much longer than the 
leaves when in fruit, pubescent or almost woolly, especially upwards, where the hairs are reversed. Zwvolucre of 
six to eight ovate leaves, 2 lines long. Flowers white, sessile. Pedicels pubescent, with reflexed hairs, 3-4 
inch long when in fruit. Fruit quite smooth. 
Oss. There is in Dr. Lyall’s collection from Milford Haven a very remarkable, possibly Umbelliferous plant, with 
the leaf broadly peltate, glabrous, shining, coriaceous, orbicular, crenate, much veined (with radiating veins), reticu- 
late, about 6 inches in diameter; the petiole is as thick as a swan’s quill, mottled with red. A very small speci- 
men, apparently of the same plant, from the South Island, is also in Dr. Lyall’s herbarium ; it has rounded, reniform, 
crenate radical leaves, not peltate, about 13 inch broad ; petioles pilose, vaginate ; roots very long, terete, tomentose. 
I have no idea to what Natural Order to refer these with much probability. 
Nar. Orp. XXXIX. ARALIACEA, Juss. 
Gen. I. PANAX, L. 
Flores polygami v. dioici. Calycis limbus brevissimus, obsolete 5-dentatus. Petala 5, sub disci 
margine inserta. Stamina 5. Ovariwm 2—4-loculare ; stylis 2—4. Bacca compressa, orbiculata v. didyma, 
2—4-locularis ; loculis 1-spermis. 
Evergreen shrubs or small trees, rarely herbs (none are herbaceous in New Zealand), with alternate, trifoliolate, 
pinnate, or digitate leaves ; petioles jointed on to the stem, and the leaflets also jointed on to the petiole. Flowers 
usually unisexual, often dicecious, green, umbellate. Umbels sometimes reduced to a few axillary flowers. Calyx tube 
adnate with the ovary ; limb very small, thick, five-toothed. Petals five, fleshy or coriaceous, valvate. Stamens five, 
inserted, as are the petals, on an epigynous disc. Ovary compressed, two- to four-celled, with two or four simple styles. 
Berry succulent or coriaceous, two- to four-celled ; cells one-seeded. —All the New Zealand species are peculiar to 
those islands, including Lord Auckland’s Group; but they are allied to Chilian and Australian plants. The genus 
is artificially separated from Aralia by the number of cells of the ovary and styles, and though plants of a very 
