Aralia — Angelica Tree. 299 



time of blossoming. The flowers of silver ball are also 

 sweet-scented, and large, and vary through being double. 



ARALIA— Angelica Tree. 



THERE are said to be twenty-five or thirty species 

 of the genus aralia, and widely distributed ; but 

 they are mostly tender plants, and, except in 

 warm climates, suitable only to cultivation under glass and 

 with artificial heat. Several prove to be half-hardy, and 

 can be grown in the open in such localities as California 

 and the States bordering on the Gulf of Mexico, and 

 northward to the Carolinas. All are interesting and even 

 beautiful plants, and worthy of more attention than has 

 been usually accorded them in American gardens, though 

 but two or three are able to endure the winters of New 

 England and the middle Northwest. 



A. spinosa — Angelica Tree — Hercules' Club. — This is 

 one of the largest growing, and the best of all for garden 

 use. It rises from twelve to sixteen feet in height, and 

 has the habit of sending up branches from the roots, so 

 that when once established it often becomes a group, the 

 parent stem in the centre, with smaller and lower ones on 

 every side. When desired, these secondary growths can 

 be easily removed so that the tree form may be retained. 

 This species is indigenous to North America, and when 

 first seen by Europeans was regarded as a great curiosity. 

 One of its peculiarities is that the woody stem is covered 

 from end to end with sharp prickles, so that one can 

 scarcely touch it with the bare hand ; and another, that in 

 autumn^especially when young — the large stems, having 



