270 ARALIACEJE. aralia. 



der creeping stems, orbicular-peltate or reniform leaves and small 

 white flowers in simple or proliferous umbels. Calyx teeth mi- 

 nute or obsolete. Fruit more or less orbicular. Carpels with 

 5 primary ribs, the dorsal marginal, broad or filiform ; inter- 

 mediate filiform, usually curved ; laterals filiform or broad, dis- 

 tinct from those of the other carpel or confluent : a prominent 

 oil-bearing layer beneath the epidermis occasionally containing 

 small oil-tubes. 



H. ranuncluoides L. f. Suppl. 177. Stems rather slender 6-12 inches 

 long : leaves thickish, round-reniform,6-18 lines in diameter, 3-7-cleft, with 

 crenate lobes: peduncles 1-3 inches long, reflexed in fruit : umbel capi- 

 tate, 5-10-flowered : fruit with rather obscure ribs, strongly flattened lat- 

 erally: stylopodium depressed. In ponds, Oregon to California and 

 across the continent. 



Order XLIV. ARALIACE.E Vent. Tabl. iii, 2. 



Shrubs, trees or perennial herbs with compound or simple 

 leaves without stipules, the petioles thickened and dilated at 

 base, and umbellate paniculate, or racemose infloresence. 

 Calyx adherent to the ovary, the limb usually very small, en- 

 tire or toothed. Petals 5-10, valvate in the bud, very larely 

 none. Stamens as many as petals and alternate with them: 

 filaments short: anthers introrse. Ovary crowned w r ith an 

 epigynous disk, 2-15-celled, with a solitary suspended ovule in 

 each cell : styles erect and connivent or spreading : stigma sim- 

 ple. Fruit drupaceous or baccate, sometimes nearly dry, but 

 the carpels not separating. Seed solitary in each cell, anatro- 

 pous. Embryo short, at the base of copious fleshy" albumen. 



1. Aralia. Petals imbricate in the bud, drupes 5-celled : pedicels not 

 jointed. 



2. Echinopanax. Petals valvate in the bud, drupes 2-3-celled, pedicels 

 not jointed. 



1 ARALIA Vaillant. 



Perennial herbs or shrubs with alternate digitate or com- 

 pound leaves and small flowers in racemed umbels. Calyx 5- 

 toothed or entire. Petals 5, ovate, slightly imbricate. Sta- 

 mens 5. Disk depressed or rarely conical. Ovary 2-5-celled; 

 styles few or connate at base, at length divaricate; stigmas 

 terminal. Fruit laterally compressed, becoming 3-5-angled, 

 fleshy externally ,enciocarp chartaceous. 



A. Californica Watson. Herbaceous, unarmed and nearly glabrous, 

 8-10 feet high from a large thick root : leaves bipinnate, or the upper pin- 

 nate with 1 or 2 pairs of leaflets, which are cordate-ovate, 4-8 inches long 

 or more, shortly acuminate, simply or doubly serrate with short acute 

 teeth, uppermost leaves ovate-lanceolate : umbels in loose terminal and 

 axilary compound or simple racemose panicles, which are a foot or two 

 long and more or less glandular -tomentose ; rays numerous, 4-6 lines long; 

 involucres of several linear bractlets ; flowers 1)4-2 lines long; disk and 



