DESCRIPTIONS OF SPECIES. 121 



Order ARALIACE/E. 

 Aralia macrophylla Newb. 

 PL LXVII, fig. 1; LXVIII, fig. l. 

 Proe. U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. V (March 21, 1883), p. 513. 



"Leaves large, long-petioled, palmately five-parted from the middle 

 upward, divisions conical in outline, sometimes entire, often remotely, occa- 

 sionally coarsely toothed; nervation strong and regular; the midribs of the 

 divisions strong and straight, those from the second lateral lobes springing 

 from near the bases of the first lateral lobes; secondary nerves numerous, 

 distinct, curved gently upward; where the margins are entire, partially 

 camptodrome; where dentate, terminating in the teeth; tertiary nerves 

 anastomosing to form quadrangular and very numerous areoles." 



Collected by Dr. C. A. White. 



In general form and nervation these leaves are very similar to the 

 typical fossil species of the genus, viz: A. Whitneyi Lesq., A. angostiloba 

 Lesq., of the Pliocene of California, and A. He re ides (Uug.) Sap. (Ami. Sci. 

 Nat. Bot., 5 me Ser., Vol. IV, p. 295 [151], PI. IX, fig 2), of the Miocene of 

 Radoboj, Croatia (Platanus Hercules Ung, Chlor. Prot., p. 138, PI. XLVI), 

 and especially A. Saportcmea Lesq. of the Dakota Cretaceous. From all 

 these, however, it differs specifically in several characters. Unger's species 

 agrees in having the midribs of the lobes radiating from the base, while in 

 the species described by Lesquereux, enumerated above, the lower pair 

 spring from the first laterals some distance above their bases, as though the 

 primary form was a tripartite leaf, the lateral lobes contracted where they 

 join, thus acquiring a spatulate outline; and his A. grandifolia has more 

 coarsely toothed, A. Jairoplmfolia, seven-parted leaves. In the localities 

 where they are found the leaves of A. macrophylla are exceedingly abun- 

 dant, sometimes matted together so as to obscure their outlines. These 

 show that they vary in size, in the number of lobes, and in the character 

 of the margins, occasionally one occurring which is only three-lobed, while 

 almost all are five, and the margins are sometimes nearly entire, while in 

 other leaves they are all strongly, even spinously dentate. The leaves vary 

 from 3 to 12 inches in length, and the lobes are sometimes long and narrow, 



