HEPTAPLEURUM RACEMOSUM. (Nat. order Araliacese.) 



HEPTAPLEURUM. Qosrtn. — QEN'. CHAR. Flowers occasionally polygamous, calyx teeth minute or inconspicuous, petals 5-9 valvate, 

 stamens as many as the petals, anthers ovate, disk convex or conical or in male flowers concave, ovary with as many cells as there are petals, styles united 

 to a short cone or almost obsolete, stigmas scarcely prominent, fruit nearly globular, the endocarp not very hard forming 5-9 one seeded pyrenea. 

 Trees or tall shrubs, sometimes epiphytic and acaadent or subscandeat, leaves alternate digitately compound or trifoliate or rarely 1-foliate, leaflets entire 

 or toothed, flowers small very numerous generally in umbels rarely only fascicled in terminal or axillary pauicle3 or racemes. — Paratropia, DO. Prod. 

 iv. 265. Sciadophyllum, Blame. Bijdr. 875. [not P. Br.) Hedera, WA. and Wight, exparle (not Linn.) 



HEPTAPLEURUM RACEMOSUiM. (Wight.) A large tree, the young parts furnished with fugacious ferrugineoua 

 tomentum or glabrous, leaves digitate, leaflets 3-7 (generally 5-7) oblongo-lanceolate acuminate to elliptic cuspidate, more or less 

 undulate on the margin, 4-7 inches long by 1 J-2 inches broad, panicles terminal and lateral often much elongate and branched, the 

 branches slightly aculeate and all generally furfuraceous at least whilst young, pedicels fasciculato-racemose (not umbelled) 4-6 lines 

 Ion", flowers 5-8 merous, styles very short united into a short cone, stigmas obtuse. — Hedera racemosa, Wight Icones. tab. 1015, 



This fine tree is common on, the JVilg iris and Animillays, S3, at eleoations from 300) to 7000 feet, and also in Ceylon. I know 

 nothing of its timber or uses. The drawing was by a mistake taken from aspeaimen aolleetid in Ceylon, but it does not differ from the South Indian 

 tree except in being more paberulous and in the parts of the flower being generally more numerous. 



Analysis. 



1. Portion of a leaf shewing only 3 leaflets. 



2. Magnified portion of a raceme shewing the ferrugineous tomeutum. 



3. A flower hud. 



4. A 7-merous flower open. 



5. A petal removed. 



6. A 6-merous flower petals removed, shewing the disk and very short styles united into a cone, and the stamens, 



7. Anthers, front and back view. 



8. An eight-celled ovary cut transversely. 



9. Vertical section of an ovary shewing the pendulous ovules. (Drawn from dried flowers.) 



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