ARALIACE, 
60 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
and persistent. The flowers are one sixteenth of an inch long, perfect or often unisexual by the 
abortion of the ovary, and have acute white petals inflexed at the apex, and connivent styles. In 
the autumn the branches of the flower-clusters become purple. The fruit ripens in August in small 
quantities in proportion to the number of the flowers, which are often sterile; it is black, one eighth of 
an inch in diameter, globose, three to five-angled, and crowned with the blackened styles; the flesh is 
thin, purple, and very juicy ; the nutlets are crustaceous and compressed. 
Aralia spinosa is distributed from Pennsylvania, where it is common on the western slope of the 
Alleghany Mountains in the counties of Clearfield, Cambria, Westmoreland, and Fayette, to southern 
Indiana! and southeastern Missouri, and ranges southward to Florida, western Louisiana, and eastern 
Texas, growing in deep moist soil usually in the neighborhood of streams, and probably attaining its 
greatest size on the foothills of the Big Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. 
The Manchurian? and 
Japanese forms® are only distinguishable from the American plant by their larger wider leaflets, which 
are often more deeply cut, and are usually pubescent on the lower surface. 
The wood of Aralia spinosa is close-grained, light, soft, and brittle; it contains numerous thin 
medullary rays and rows of open ducts marking the layers of annual growth, and is brown streaked 
with yellow, with lighter colored sapwood composed of two or three layers of annual growth. 
The bark of the root and the berries are occasionally employed in the United States in medicine, 
principally in domestic practice, and are stimulant and diaphoretic ; the bark of the root is emetic and 
cathartic, and has been found efficient in relieving rheumatism.‘ 
The earliest account of Aralia spinosa was published in 1688,° and describes a plant cultivated 
by Bishop Compton in his garden at Fulham near London, who received it from John Banister in 
Virginia. 
The unusual appearance of its stout-armed stems, the great size of its leaves, and the enormous 
clusters of flowers which appear when most trees and shrubs have passed their flowering time, have long 
made Aralia spinosa a favorite in the gardens of temperate countries,® where its habit and peculiar 
appearance are unlike those of any other hardy plant. 
In recent years the American plant is less 
frequently seen in cultivation than the hardier and more robust Manchurian form. 
Aralia spinosa may be propagated from seed, or from cuttings of the fleshy roots, which soon 
produce vigorous plants. 
1 Ridgway, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1882, 67. 
2 Aralia spinosa, var. Chinensis. 
Aralia Chinensis, Linneus, Spec. 273 (1753). — De Candolle, 
Prodr. iv. 259.— Bentham, Fl. Hongk. 135.— Seemann, Jour. 
Bot. vi. 133. 
Leea spinosa, Sprengel, Syst. i. 670 (1825). 
Aralia Planchoniana, Hance, Jour. Bot. iv. 172 (1866). 
Aralia Decaisneana, Hance, Ann. Sci. Nat. sér. 5, v. 215 (1866). 
Aralia Mandshurica, Maximowicz & Ruprecht, Bull. Cl. Phys.- 
Math. Acad. Sci. St. Pétersbourg, xv. 134 (1857). 
Dimorphanthus Mandshuricus, Maximowiez, Prim. Fl. Amur. 
133 (1859). 
Aralia spinosa, Forbes & Hemsley, Jour. Linn. Soc. xxiii, 338 
(in part) (1886). 
3 Aralia spinosa, var. elata. 
Dimorphanthus clatus, Miquel, Comm. Phyt. 95, t. 12 (1840). — 
Walpers, Rep. ii. 430. 
Aralia canescens, Siebold & Zuccarini, Abhand. Akad. Miinch. 
iv. 202 (1843). 
Aralia Leroana, Koch, Wochenschrift, 1864, 369. — Seemann, 
i. c. 135 (excl. var. g., Torrey & Gray). 
Aralia elata, Seemann, Jour. Bot. vi. 134 (1868). 
Aralia spinosa, var. glabrescens, Franchet & Savatier, J. c. 191 
(1875). 
Aralia spinosa, var. canescens, Franchet & Savatier, Enum. Pl. 
Jap. i. 192 (1875). 
In Yeso, where this form with large ovate leaflets, pale and pu- 
bescent or rarely glabrous on the lower surface, grows to the 
largest size, it is one of the commonest inhabitants of the forest 
of deciduous trees which cover the low hills, growing in rich humid 
soil, usually associated with White Oaks, Hornbeams, the Hop 
Hornbeam, Magnolias, Cercidiphyllum, Lindens, and Acanthopanax ; 
it is also abundant on the mountain ranges of Hondo, and is always 
a conspicuous feature in August and September, when the flower- 
clusters rise above the surrounding foliage. 
4 Elliott, Sk. i. 373. — Rosenthal, Syn. Pl. Diaphor. 560. — John- 
son, Man. Med. Pl. N. Am. 156.— U. S. Dispens. ed. 16, 1714. 
5 Angelica arborescens spinosa, seu Arbor Indica Fraxini folio, cor- 
tice spinoso, Ray, Hist. Pl. 11. 1798. 
Christophoriana arbor aculeata Virginiensis, Plukenet, Phyt. t. 20 ; 
Alm. Bot. 98. 
Angelica arborescens spinosa, seu Arbor Indica Fraxini folio, cortice 
spinoso, J. Commelyn, Hort. i. 89, t. 47. 
Aralia arborescens spinosa, Vaillant, Serm. Struct. Flor. 43. 
Aralia caule aculeato, Linneus, Hort. Cliff. 113. 
Aralia arborea aculeata, Linneus, Virid. 26.— Clayton, Fl. Vir- 
gin. 34. 
6 Aiton, Hort. Kew. i. 382. — Loudon, Arb. Brit. ii. 999, f. 754. 
