ARALIACE.E. 181 



GENUS I.—B. EDERA. Linn. 



Calyx-tube adhering to the ovary, limb of 5 teeth ; petals 

 5 or 10, not cohering at the apex, valvate in aestivation ; stamens 

 5 or 10 ; styles 5 or 10, more or less cohering, frequently united 

 into one. Fruit a berry with 3 to 10 seeds. 



Climbing or erect shrubs, with simple or compound leaves. 

 Flowers in simple umbels or heads, arranged in racemes, corymbs, 

 or panicles. 



The derivation of the name of this genus of plants is very variously given. One 

 author says it was conferred on the plant by Pliny, and ingeniously conjectured to be 

 a. corruption of aduarct, it adheres or clings to other trees. Another explanation is 

 that it has been derived from hedra, which means cord in Celtic. A third gives the 

 origin from hiedra or heath, Scotch heather, because it was and is used for fuel. 



SPECIES I— H EDERA HELIX. Linn. 

 Plate DCXXXIII. 

 Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 1212. 



Leaves coriaceous, evergreen, those of the clinging or trailing 

 branches nearly as broad as long, sub-cordate or cordate at the 

 base, 3- to 5-lobed ; lobes deltoid or triangular ; leaves of the non- 

 radical branches lanceolate, oval-lanceolate, or rkornboidal-oval, 

 acuminate, entire. Flowers in simple dense umbels, somewhat 

 racemoseiy arranged. Peduncles, pedicels, and calyces clothed with 

 simple stellate hairs, with few rays. 



In woods, hedges, and on old buildings and rocks. Common, 

 and generally distributed. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Shrub. Late Autumn. 



Stem stout, tortuous, branched, adhering to the trunks of trees, 

 rocks, or walls, by means of very numerous radicular fibres, or trailing 

 over the ground when there is no supporting object within reach. 

 In the latter case never flowering, and with the leaves small, very 

 deeply lobed and veined with white. In the former case, after 

 reaching the top of the support, flowering-shoots are produced, on 

 which the leaves are not lobed and much narrower. At the base of 

 these flowering-shoots the leaves are intermediate in shape. Umbels 

 sub-globose, the terminal one of the raceme the largest. Involucre 

 of numerous broadly triangular concave leaves. Umbel rays longer 

 than the flowers and fruit. Flowers pale greenish-yellow, A inch 

 across. Calyx-segments very minute, deltoid. Petals boat-shaped, 

 caducous. Style very short. Berries about the size of peas, black, 

 ripening in spring. Seeds 3 to 5. Plant glabrous. Leaves glossv. 



