2746 



POLYSCIAS 



POLYSCIAS 



of the cultivated forms, many of which are not only 

 variable but the flowers and fruits may be unknown. 

 Any arrangement of these forms must be considered to 

 be tentative. 



Four distinct types or forms of tender greenhouse 

 aralias are illustrated herewith. Fig. 3111 is the Aralia 



3112. Dizygotheca elegantissima. The Aralia elegantissima 

 of greenhouses. ( X M) 



Chabrieri of gardens. It has very long glossy stiffish 

 long-pointed leaves with a dark red midrib, the margin 

 entire or remotely denticulate and more or less revo- 

 lute. These leaves are opposite or nearly so on short 

 side branches, as if parts' in a compound leaf, and 

 apparently confusion has arisen in descriptions. In the 

 illustration, a leaf is shown at a, in the axil of which 

 is a branch bearing the leaves. This plant, which is 

 cultivated in its juvenile state, has been little under- 

 stood botanically. It is not an aralia nor of the aralia 

 family, although referred doubtfully to Polyscias. It is 

 now considered to be Elseodendron orientate (see page 

 1107, where the matter is left in doubt). Harms, an 

 authority on these plants, has recently gone over the 

 question (Gt. 62, pp. 533-5, and 63, p. 117), and has 

 concluded that the plant is E. orientale. Guillaumin 

 (R.H. 1912, p. 491) considers it to be an Eteodendron 

 but not E. orientale. The long linear leaves with red 

 mid-nerves are merely the young form of the species, 

 and they pass into the broad-lanceolate or shorter 

 oval or obovate thick leaves of the mature plant. 

 Aralia Chabrieri apparently appeared first under this 



3113. Terminal leaflet of Polyscias fruticosa. 

 Adapted from Blanco, Flora de Filipinas; much reduced. 



name in 1881 in the catalogue of Van Geert, Ghent. 

 For portraits of it, see R.B. 13:20 (1887); R.H. 

 1891, p. 224; Gn. 39, p. 576. 



The florists' plant shown in Fig. 3112 is Dizygotheca 

 elegantissima, Vig. & Guill. (Aralia elegantissima, 

 Veitch). Very similar plants are Aralia Veitchii, Hort. 

 Veitch, and its var. gracillima, Hort. Bull. (A. gracil- 

 lima, Hort. A. gracilina, Lind. R.H. 1877, p. 38), its 

 var. robusta, Hort., and A. Kerchoveana, Hort. It is 

 not unlikely that all the plants mentioned above in this 

 paragraph are foliar forms of one species, representing 

 a juvenile state of a Dizygotheca (page 1062), although 

 it is possible that other generic disposition will be 

 made of these things when the different forms and the 

 flowers and fruits are known. These names, as repre- 

 sented in plants in the trade, however, are of two groups : 

 (1) Aralia Veitchii, A. Veitchii robusta, and A. gracil- 

 lima with undulate nearly or quite entire leaflets, 

 which may be tentatively called Dizygotheca Veitchii, 

 Hort.; (2) the other group is A. Kerchoveana and A. 

 elegantissima, with strongly notch-toothed leaflets, 

 which are about 1 in. broad in the former and about 

 half as wide in the latter; the former is Dizygotheca 

 Kerchoveana, Hort., and the latter D. elegantissima, 

 Vig. & Guill. 



The plants shown in Figs. 3113 to 3117 are by some 

 referred to Nothopanax; but until their position is better 

 determined, they 

 may be described 

 tentatively under 

 Polyscias. No- 

 thopanax as under- 

 stood by Harms 

 has leaves pri- 

 marily digitate 

 whereas Polyscias 

 has leaves on the 

 pinnate order; as 

 defined by others, 

 however, Notho- 

 panax comprises 

 species with leaves 

 simple, pinnate or 

 pinnately decom- 

 pound. As in many 

 of the araliads, the 

 leaves in this gen- 

 eral group are very 

 variable. Harms 

 calls attention to 

 the fact that in 

 Nothopanax the 

 leaves may be dif- 

 ferent on the same 

 plant in successive 

 ages. On the young 

 plants the leaves 

 are mostly digitate 

 with the leaflets 

 often once-pinnatisect ; older plants have simple leaves 

 and the leaflets entire or toothed or once-pinnatisect, 

 or sometimes only digitate leaves. 



The culture of the several kinds of plants known to 

 florists and greenhouse men as aralias is not difficult. 

 Among the most desirable tropical kinds, are those 

 known in the trade as Aralia (Elseodendron) Chabrieri, A. 

 elegantissima, A . Veitchii, A . gracillima, A . leptophylla (all 

 Dizygotheca), A.monstrosa, A. Victorise, A.plumatum, 

 (all Polyscias) and others. Aralias are increased by cut- 

 tings and by grafts. A. leptophylla, and the forms of 

 A. Veitchii, are rarely propagated except by grafting. 

 The stock considered by many to be the best to use is 

 A. reticulata (probably Oreopanax reticulatum, Fig. 

 2676, Vol. IV, which is Meryta Denhamii). Cuttings of 

 it about the thickness of an ordinary pencil may be 

 secured, and established in small pots, when they may 



3114. Polyscias Guilfoylei. 



