ARALIACEAE. 143 



stipule-scars ; rounded or ovoid sometimes superposed buds with 

 several exposed scales ; moderately large petioled leaves ; some- 

 times imperfect small polypetalous or apetalous flowers axil- 

 lary or in stalked head-like clusters ; and rather small sometimes 

 very sour blue or black inferior drupes. 

 Leaves glossy, entire, (Pepperidge). N. sylvatica. 



Family ARALIACEAE. Aralia Family. 

 A rather small family of little use except for plantations. 

 The ivy is traditionally the best climbing plant where it can 

 endure the climate. 



ACANTHOPANAX. 



Deciduous shrubs or stiff sparingly branched trees with 

 more or less prickly bark ; pale soft wood with a single ring of 

 large ducts each year and tangential wavy wood-parenchyma 

 bands ; rounded homogeneous pale pith ; alternate ovoid buds 

 w.ith several scales ; crescent-shaped or linear leaf scars with 5 

 or more bundle-traces ; digitate or palmately lobed moderate- 

 sized leaves, often clustered on spurs ; small often monoecious 

 greenish polypetalous flowers in umbels or panicles ; and small 

 berry-like fruit crowned by the calyx-teeth. 



1. Leaves simple: a tree. A. ricinifolius. 

 Leaves digitately compound : shrubs. 



2. Leaves green. A. pentaphyllus. 

 Variegated. A. pentaphyllus variegatus. 



ARALIA. Hercules' Club. 



Deciduous large coarse shrubs or arborescent (herbaceous 

 in other species), with very stout prickles; brownish zoned wood 

 with small ducts, more crowded in the spring growth and slightly 

 tangentially seriate later, and fine but distinct medullary rays ; 

 large crenate homogeneous pale pith ; very stout terete twigs ; 

 alternate large U-shaped or linear leaf-scars half encircling the 

 stem, with numerous bundle-traces in a single series ; no stipule- 

 scars ; rounded buds with few pointed scales ; very large decom- 

 pound leaves ; small white polypetalous perfect flowers in large 

 showy panicles ; and small inferior berries. 



