156 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



common column for the greater part of their extent, and Eleuthero- 

 coccuSfi which differs from Pentapanax only in the constantly valvate 

 prefloration of the corolla, the styles being equally united and the 

 pedicels articulate. Except Eleutherococcus, most of the preceding 

 types have pinnate leaves. This character is found in an American 

 plant, Sciadodendron excelswm,^ which has the hnbricate corolla of 

 the true Aralia, but is distinguished as a section of this genus by 

 its floral verticils ordinarily more than pentamerous. Its ovary is 

 8-10- celled. 



Thus determined,' the great genus Aralia appears very natural and 

 includes some sixty species ; they have been much multiplied.^ 



Aralidium pinnatifidum, a plant from the Indian archipelago and 

 Malaya, as yet imperfectly known, approaches the true Aralia by its 

 imbricate or nearly valvate corolla, but differs from it by its dioecious 

 flowers and inflorescence in a very ramose compound cluster, the 

 divisions of which are clothed with numerous small cymes (?) of 

 flowers. The leaves are alternate, very variable in form, simple, 

 entire or nearly so, or pinnatifid. 



Near Aralia must be placed two genera from New Caledonia which 

 have been ranged among the Umbelliferw proper and which connect 

 the latter with the Araliea : they are Myodocarpus (fig. 191-193) and 

 Delarbrea. In the former, the flowers have an inferior, bilocular 

 ovary, compressed, like the fruit, perpendicular to the partition, and 

 sessile petals distinctly imbricate. The two styles, geniculate near 

 the summit, surmount a depressed stylopod. The dorsal margin of 

 each of the ovarian cells is dilated in the fruit, especially below, to a 

 large obtuse, membranous and veined wing. Finally, the two meri- 

 carps separate from each other, forming each a samara surmounted 

 by two or three sepals and a style. In the seminiferous portion, the 

 pericarp produces numerous vesicular reservoirs of odorous oleoresin 



• Maxiu. Primit. Ft. Amur. 132. — Eupb. Voi/. Bot. t. 81. — Hook. Kew Journ. iv. 53, 1. 1, 

 Deo. PI. Amur. t. 7.— B. H. Gen. 941, n. 22.— 2.— VTall. Pt.As.Rar. t. 137, 190 {Jledera).— 

 Seem. Journ. Bot. vi. 161. "Wight, Icon. t. 137 {Sedera). — Hombr. et 



' Grisee. Bonplandia (1857), 7. — SEEM.yo«>-«. JioauiN. Voy. au F6le Sud. t. 2. — Hook. Icon. 



Bot. V. 285, t. 71. t. 747.— A. Gray, Mem. (ed. 5) 198 ; Vnit. St. 



' Sect. 13 : 1, Fuaralia. 2, Dimorphanthus. Expl. Bot. i. {Stilbocarpa). — Chapm. Fl. 8. Unit. 



3, Fatsia. 4, Stilbocarpa. 5, Tetrapanax. 6, Au- St. 176.— Hook. f. Handb. N.^Zeal. Fl. 99 (JStil- 



reliana. 7, Acanthopanax. 8, Mchinopanax. 9, bocarpa). — Mia. Fl. Ind.-Bat. i. p. i. 749, 763 



Srassaiopsis. 10, Macropanax. 11, Pentapanax. (Macropanax). — Bot. Mag. t. 1085, 1333, 1334, 



12, Eleutherococcus. 13, Sciadodendron. 4804 (Sedera), 4897. — "Walp. Sep. ii. 420, 939 ; 



* Vent. Jard. Cela.i. 41.— Toek. Fl. N.-Torlc, v. 925; Ann. i. 358 ; ii. 724 ; v. 83. 

 t. 40. — SiBB. et Zucc. Fl. Jap. t. 25. — Jacuuem. 



