ARALIA 



211 



eral species found in the Mississippi Valley, Western Pkicklt ' Pear ' 

 (334) — Opuntia Eafinfequii — etc. 



MamilUria. The next group of cacti in number and variety of forms 

 ■wild in the United States are more or less rounded or oblong masses hav- 

 ing the surface entirely covered with spiny-tipped tubercles (raammillse) ; 

 as, Purple Cactus (335) — Mamillaria vivfpara. Of this group there are 

 a dozen wild and many cultivated species. The hundreds of species in 

 cultivation belong to these two and some dozen other genera. 



There is a group very popular in cultivation which has broad flat leaf- 

 like growths for stems, thus called Leaf Cactus — Phylloodotus. A 

 few of these are night-blooming 

 of great beauty and delicious 

 perfume. Though some of these 

 . are wild in Cuba, probably none 

 can be grown out of doors except 

 in southern California. 



[Cuttings.] 



Alalia. The Aealias proper 

 form a large group (40 species) of 

 mainly tropic plants with com- 

 pound leaves and clustered small 

 flowers ; two of the species are 

 shrubs or small trees nearly hardy 

 North. 



Hercules' Club or Devil's 

 Walking-stick, and Angelica- 

 tree are beautiful prickly shrubs 

 or small trees with very large com- 

 pound leaves 1 to 4 feet long, 

 with 75 to 200 blades and enor- 

 mous clusters of' white flowers, in August. The two species are the 

 American Hercules Club (336) — Aralia spin6sa, — and the Chinese An- 

 gelica-tree — Aralia chin&sis, — either of which occasionally grows to 

 the height of 40 feet. The American is apt to be the more prickly, on 

 both stem and leaves. The blades of the bipinnate leaf of the American 

 are usually smaller, 1^ to 3J inches long, and short-stalked, while the 

 Chinese blades are larger, 3J to 6 inches long, and about stemless. 

 Neither are fully hardy North without some protection, but the Chinese 

 is the more hardy. In the American species the veins peculiarly curve 

 near the margins, while those of the Chinese divide. There is a form of 

 the latter with variegated leaves. No shrubs in the northern states have 



Fig. 336. — Hercules 

 Club. 



