96 FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND. | Araliacee. 
10-12 inches long, patent, rachis or main stem straight; secondary alternate, spreading at right angles to the main 
stem, with an oblong acuminate deciduous bractea at the base. Flowers in very numerous, small, irregularly formed, 
pedunculate umbels, alternate along the branches. Female flowers with ten short styles, collected at the base into 
one short conical column. Berry smaller than a pepper-corn, with ten cells united together; purple-black, pulpy, 
ten-lobed when dry. —PLATE XXII. Fig. 1, 2, male flowers; 3, female umbels; 4, fruit; 5, the same cut open 
transversely :—all but fig. 3 magnified. 
$c. ARALTA, L. Shrubby or arboreous. Stipules wanting. Leaves simple or digitate. Primary branches of the 
umbels umbellate. Styles united at the base. 
3. Aralia crassifolia, Banks et Sol.; subarborea, dioica v. polygama, foliis polymorphis junioribus 
simplicibus v. 2-3-foliolatis longissime linearibus adultis simplicibus lineari-oblongis omnibus profunde 
sinuato-dentatis rarius integerrimis crassissimis et coriaceis, umbellis terminalibus, pedunculis primariis 5-10 
elongatis umbellas racemosas 8-10-floras pedunculatas gerentibus, stylis 5 in columnam aceretis apice liberis, 
bacca globosa coriacea 5-loculari. Banks et Sol. MSS. et Ic. A. Cunn. Prodr. Hook. Ic. Plant. t, 583, 584. 
Xylophylla longifolia, Banks et Sol. MSS. et Ic. 
Has. Throughout the Islands; abundant, Banks and Solander, ete. Chatham Island, Diefenbach. 
Nat. names, “ Horoeka," Cunn.; “ Hohoeka," Middle Island, Lya//. (Cultivated in England.) 
A very remarkable plant, on account of the variable form of its leaves, which renders it difficult to decide 
whether or no there may be more than one species included under the name of 4. crassifolia. A small erect tree, 
20-30 feet high. Young plants forming simple flexible poles, 12 feet high, with curious spreading, distant, alternate, 
linear, very thick and. coriaceous, remotely toothed leaves, 8 inches to a foot long, and $ inch broad; these leaves 
are dull green, with a broad yellow blotch at the base of each tooth. Towards the top of the plant the leaves are 
petiolate and trifoliolate; each leaflet like one of the simple lower leaves. In this state the plant is common in cul- 
tivation, presenting two varieties however, one slender, never branched, and with green bark and broader leaves; the 
other stouter, sometimes branched, with brownish bark, all the leaves simple and broad in proportion to their length. 
This latter I suspect to be the 4. Lessoni. Dried specimens in flower have always simple leaves, sessile or narrowed 
into short very stout petioles, not jointed at the apex; they are 6—10 inches long, linear-oblong or cuneate, gra- 
dually broader upwards, never more than 1-14 inch broad, usually 3 inch, deeply irregularly sinuate, or toothed, 
rarely entire. Inflorescence terminal; primary branches five to ten, sessile, elongate, of nearly equal length, bearing 
peduneulate racemes or rarely irregular umbels of pedicellate flowers. Styles five, united into a column, free at the 
top. Berries coriaceous, globose, five-celled.—In Dr. Lyall’s specimens from the Southern Island, the ultimate 
umbels of female flowers are regularly umbellate, not at all racemose. ; 
4. Aralia Lessoni; subarborea, dioica v. polygama, foliis (polymorphis junioribus simplicibus ?) 
adultis longe petiolatis 3-5-foliolatis, foliolis sessilibus oblongo-lanceolatis acutis sinuato-dentatis crassis 
et coriaceis, umbellis terminalibus, pedunculis primariis elongatis secundariis racemoso-floriferis, stylis 5 in 
columnam concretis, bacca oblonga 5-loculari. Cussonia, A. Rich. Flora, p. 285. t. 32. A. Cunn. Prodr. 
Panax? De Cand. Prodr. Aralıa trifolia, Banks et Sol. MSS. 
Has. Northern Island. East coast, Cunningham; Auckland, Sinclair; Middle Island, Bream Bay, 
D'Urville. Nat. name, * Whau whau,” R. Cunn. (Cultivated in England.) 
A small tree, apparently closely resembling in habit and inflorescence 4. erassifolia, but the old leaves are very 
like those of Panax Colensoi, and the berry is larger and oblong, not rounded. The foliage of the young plants I 
suspect to be as protean as that of the former, and possibly the plant has hence been overlooked by Mr. Colenso, 
who has never sent specimens. 
