162 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



obconical or subturbinate sac, bears on the margin of its upper orifice : 

 a calyx with five teeth, often obtuse, generally not very distinct, often 

 even almost|nil; five alternate oval petals, inflexed at the summit 

 and forming together a small pendant key in the bud, more or less 



Aralia Qinseng. 



Fig. 186. Root (t). 



Fig. 185. Fructiferous stem. 



imbricate in prefloration ; five alternipetalous stamens, inserted 

 under the margin of an epigynous disk ^ corresponding to the union 

 of the stylopods of other Umhelliferce. Each stamen has a free 

 filament, inflexed in the bud and replicate upon itself close to the 

 summit, so that the anther, later oscillant, is introrse, as well in the 

 bud, when the filament is incurved, as in the newly opened flower, 

 when the filament is erect and has become exserted. It is, moreover, 



^ It is clearly seen in certain species in which 

 the summit of the ovary emerges more or less 

 from the receptacle, that it is this apical portion 

 of the ovary which thickens to a glandular 



tissue, sometimes coloured. In the flower of A . 

 Japonica (fig. 187, 188), this bed is smooth and 

 yellow. 



