154 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



There are some species of Aralia somewhat abnormal which, 

 however, cannot be separated from the genus otherwise than as sec- 

 tions. These are : Dimorphanthus,^ whose flowers or some of them 

 are unisexual ; A. japonica (fig. 187, 188), which has been referred 

 to a genus jPafsM,'^ because its leaves are palmatifid, and because its 

 petals have been considered valvate. But they are also often more 

 or less imbricate, and the only feature distinctly characteristic of this 

 section is that the articulation of the ovary on the pedicel does not 

 exist or is very obscure.^ 



A. papyrifera, also considered as a Fatsia, then as type of a genus 

 Tetrapanax,* has likewise pedicels without true articulation. The 

 receptacle is obconical and entirely encloses the ovary, the summit 



of which is depressed ; 

 Aralia (stutocarpa) poiaris. the petals are four or 



five in number, valvate 

 or slightly imbricate ; 

 and the ovarian cells 

 and divergent styles, 

 two. It is a plant 

 from the island of 

 Formosa, with an 

 abundant pith, palma- 

 tifid woolly leaves with 

 stipules long attenuate 

 at the summit. 

 A. palaris, of which the genus Stilhocarpa^ has been made, has 

 pedicels clearly articulate and three or four cells to the ovary, the 

 summit of which is depressed, as is also that of the fruit (fig. 189, 

 190), which is globular, smooth, glossy, with three or four putamens. 

 It is an herb of the antarctic polar islands and New Zealand, with 



Fig. 189. Fruit (f). 



Fi^. 190. Long. sect, 

 of fruit. 



1 MiQ. Comm. 9.5, t. 12. 



3 DcKE. et PL. loe. eit. 105.— B. H. Gen. 939, 

 n. 13 (part). — Seem. Journ. Sol. v. 57.— H. Bn. 

 Adansonia, xii. 136. 



' To the point where the receptacular dilata- 

 tion commenoes, the pedicel is clothed with a 

 brownish ' down which stops there suddenly. 

 At this point, in several other Aralias, the 

 pedicel is dilated to a smaU ohconical cupule. 



■• C. Koch, Voch. Gdrtn. u. Fjt. (1859) 371.— 



Ott, et SoND. Semi. Gartenz. (1862) 61.— 

 Seem. Journ. JBot. vi. 67. Benthak and Hookek 

 refer this plant to the genus Fatsia, as also 

 Panax horridus Sm. type of a genus Echinopanax 

 (Done, et Pi. he. cit. 105) or Oplopanax (Mia. 

 Ann. Mus. Lugd.-Bat. i. 16). 



* Hook. p. Fl. N.-Zel. i. 95 {JralicB sect.).— 

 B. H. Gen. 935.— Seem. Jotirn. Sot. vi. 138. — 

 Stylbocarpa Done, et Pl. lo,c. cit. 105." 



