12 



This species is not uncommon in Japan, and it grows in the wild state, 

 but frequently it is planted as a leaf- vegetable and a hedge plant. The 

 bark of the root was formerly employed as the drug. 



My specimens of which above descriptions were made are probably the 

 female, while the male plant is yet unknown. All the other species of 

 Japanese Acanthoparax, have 2-celled ovaries, but the present species 5-7, 

 and this is that was described under the name of Aralia pentaphylla 

 Thunb. in the authors' above cited work by Siebold and Zuccarini, but the 

 Thunberg's species which is described in his Flora Japonica p. 128, is a 

 different species bearing only 2, not 5, styles as is stated by B. Seemann, the 

 author of Kevision of the Natural Order Hederaceas. Aralia pentaphylla 

 Thunb., Acanthopanax spinosum (Linn, fil.) Seem, of the recent day, is very 

 closely allied to but clearly distinct with my species. MiqueFs Acanthopanax 

 spinosum in Annales Musei botanici Lugduno-Batavi, I. p. 10, evidently 

 comprises two different species, Thunberg's Aralia pentaphylla {—Panax 

 spinosum Linn, fil.) and my species. 



I have seen a beautiful lithographical picture bearing the name of 

 Aralia pentaphylla Thunb., delineated by Q. M. E. Ver. Huell in 1854 

 and printed by L. Stroobant of Grand in Belgium, that seems to have been 

 drawn from SieboicVs dried Japanese specimen and is surely identical with 

 my species. 



My species may serve a chain to connect the genus Eleutlierococcus and 

 the Acanthopanax, especially on account of the number of cells of the ovary, 

 and the sub-articulated condition of the ovary and pedicel. 



Acanthopanax japonicum Franch. et Sav. Enum. pi. Japon, II. p. 

 377, is perhaps a mere forms of A spinosum (Linn, fil.) Seem. ; because 

 the teeth of leaves of the latter species being found sometimes short, 

 crenate and incumbent, and sometimes inciso-dentate, apart from one 

 another by the open sinus, the manner of the serration of the margins of 

 the leaves in this species is not the constant character to distinguish the 

 species. 



{To be continued.) 



