VOL. XXX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 315 



phrodite, standing on the ovary b. The ovary, which is crowned by a calyx 

 cut into several parts, becomes a berry d, in which are, for the most part, two 

 flat seeds, like a semicircle, which both together represent a kind of heart. Add 

 to this the stalk, which is single, ending in an umbel, of which each ray bears 

 only one flower. Above the middle of the stalk come out several pedicles, as 

 on that of the anemone, on the extremities of which grow several leaves like 

 rays, or like an open hand. 



The species of this genus are: 1.* Araliastrum quinquefolii folio, majus, 

 nin-zen vocatum D. Sarrazin. Gin-seng. Des lettres edifiantes et curieuses, 

 torn. X, p. 172. 



2. Araliastrum quinquefolii folio, minus. D. Sarrazin. Plantula marilandica, 

 foliis in summo caule ternis, quorum unumquodque quinquefariam dividitur, 

 circa margines serratis. N° 36, Raii Hist, iii, t)58. 



3. Araliastrum fragrariae folio, minus. D. Vaillant. Nasturtium marianum 

 anemones sylvaticas foliis, enneaphyllon, floribus exiguis. Pluk. Mantiss. 135. 

 Tab. 435, fig. 7. 



To show wherein araliastrum difi^ers from aralia, from whence it takes its 

 name, it is convenient to give also the character of this last genus, such as 

 Mr. Vaillant established it, in his demonstrations of the year J717. 



Aralia, vid. Inst. Rei Herb. 300, tab. 154, is altogether like the araliastrum, 

 as to the structure and situation of its flower, but its berry consists of 5 seeds 

 placed round an axis. Its leaves are branched, almost like those of angelica; 

 and its stalks, which in some species are naked, and in others have leaves set 

 alternately, bear each several umbels at their top, in the form of a bunch of 

 grapes. 



The species of aralia are: 1. Aralia caule aphyllo, radice repente. D. Sar- 

 razin. Christophoriana Virginiana Zarzae radicibus surculosis et fungosis, sar- 

 saparilla nostratibus dicta. Pluk. Almag. QS, tab. 238, fig. 5. Zarsaparilla 



Dr. Sherrard lived in a state of honourable privacy in London, wholly immersed in the studies of 

 natural history, and died August 12, 1728, leaving by will the sum of 3000 pounds, to provide a 

 salary for a professor of botany, in the University of Oxford, on condition that Dillenius should be 

 chosen the first professor. He also gave to this establishment his celebrated Herbarium. He was 

 the author of several papers in the Philos. Trans, particularly an account of a new island raised neai" 

 Santorini in the Archipelago, on the 12th of May, 1707. 



His brother, James Sherrard, born in 1666, was an eminent apothecary in London, pursued the 

 same studies with his brother, and had a celebrated botanical garden at Eltham in Kent, immortalized 

 by Dillenius in his well known Hortus Elthamensis. He inherited the greater part of his brother's 

 fortune, and had the degree of Doctor in Physic conferred upon hira by the University of Oxford. 

 He died in the year 1737. 



♦ Panax quinquefolium. Linn. 



S S 2 



