APLOPAPPUS ARALIA . 197 



APLOPAPPUS ERICOIDES, De Candolle. COMPOSITE. 



(Gardeners' Chronicle, 1896, ii., fig. 57.) 



An evergreen shrub, 3 to 5 ft. high, with erect branchlets, slightly 

 downy and glutinous when young. Leaves very small, numerous, and 

 heath-like, from \ to \ in. long, of the thickness of stout thread ; dark 

 green, stalkless, produced in clusters at each joint. Flower-heads in 

 corymbs borne on long slender stems, the whole forming a crowded 

 mass of yellow blossom at the end of the shoots of the year ; at their best 

 in August and September. Each flower-head is \ in. in diameter, with 

 five ray-florets. 



Native of California, and not hardy at Kew except on a wall. On the 

 south coast it thrives well, especially at Worthing; it succeeds also in 

 Canon Ellacombe's garden, near Bristol. Like some other shrubby 

 composites it is apt to wear out under cultivation, and should be occasion- 

 ally renewed by means of cuttings, which root freely if put in a propagating 

 frame with gentle heat in July. It is a pretty and interesting plant, quite 

 distinct from all other introduced shrubby composites, especially in its 

 deep green, heath-like foliage. 



ARALIA CHINENSIS, Linvaus. CHINESE ANGELICA TREE. 



ARALIACE^:. 



A deciduous tree, 30 ft. or more high, with a few stout branches; 

 more often a shrub renewing itself by sucker growths from the base; 

 young growths very thick (over i in. in diameter), pithy, and armed more 

 or less with spines. Leaves doubly pinnate, often 3, scmetimes 4 ft. 

 long, two-thirds as wide ; composed of numerous ovate, taper-pointed, 

 short-stalked leaflets, from 3 to 5 ins. long, 2 to 3 ins. wide, toothed ; dark 

 bright green and slightly hairy on the veins above, paler and always 

 downy beneath, often much so, and especially on the midrib and veins ; 

 stalks somewhat prickly. Flowers small, whitish, produced in August 

 and September in numerous globose umbels to ij ins. across, the 

 whole forming a huge panicle i to 2 ft. long and from half to nearly as 

 much through ; flower-stalks covered densely with down. Several varieties 

 of this Aralia are in cultivation : 



Var. ALBO-MARGINATA. Leaflets irregularly margined, sometimes more 

 than half covered, with creamy white. 



Var. AUREO- MARGINATA. Similar in variegation to the preceding, but the 

 colour golden yellow. These two are amongst the most effective and beautiful 

 of all variegated shrubs. 



VAR. MANDSCHURICUS (Dimorphanthus mandschuricus, M aximowicz). 

 Downy only on the veins and midrib beneath, more sharply toothed; hardier 

 than the type. 



Var. PYRAMIDALIS. Leaves rather smaller than in the type, and growing 

 erect instead of spreading. 



Native of China, Japan, and Manchuria; introduced about 1865, and 



