in simple or compound umbels, less often in racemes or panicles. Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary; limb truncate or toothed or almost obsolete. Petals usually 5, seldom 4 or more than 5, valvate or slightly imbricate. Stamens as many as the petals, and inserted with them round the margin of an epigynous disc; filaments usnally inflexed. Ovary superior, 2- to many-celled, rarely 1-celled; styles as many as the cells, free or connate; ovules solitary, pendulous, anatropous. Fruit drupaceous, indebiscent; epicarp usually succulent; cells 2 to many, 1-seeded. Seeds pendulous; testa membranous; albumen copious, fleshy; embryo minute, radicle next the hilum.
An order very closely allied to Umbelliferæ, principally differing in the arborescent habit, valvate petals, ovary usually more than 2-celled, and succulent fruit. The species are mainly tropical or subtropical, few of them extending into the temperate zones. Genera 40; species about 350. The properties of the order are unimportant. Of the 6 genera found in New Zealand, Stilbocarpa and Pseudopanax are endemic; Aralia mainly belongs to the north temperate zone, Meryta and Schefflera are chiefly Polynesian, while Panax has a wide range in the Old World.
| * The New Zealand species herbaceous, with broad orbicular-reniform leaves. Petals imbricate. | |
| Fruit globose, cup-shaped or hollowed at the top | 1. Stilbocarpa. |
| Fruit globose, not hollowed at the top | 2. Aralia. |
| ** Shrubs or trees. Petals valvate. Stamens equal in number to the petals. | |
| Leaves simple or digitate. Ovary 2-celled, rarely 3-4-celled. Styles distinct, recurved at the apex | 3. Panax. |
| Leaves simple, very large. Flowers paniculate | 4. Meryta. |
| Leaves digitate. Umbels small, racemed on the branches of a large spreading panicle | 5. Schefflera. |
| Leaves simple or digitately divided. Ovary usually 5-celled. Styles very short, connate into a cone or column | 6. Pseudopanax. |
1. STILBOCARPA, A. Gray.
A stout much-branched herb; stem fistulose. Leaves large, orbicular or reniform, setose; petiole with broad membranous stipuliform sheaths. Umbels 3 or 4 times compound, forming a large globose head 6–9 in. diam.; involucral bracts foliaceous. Flowers polygamous, jointed on the top of the pedicel. Calyx-tube 3–4-grooved; limb obsolete. Petals 5, obovate, obtuse, imbricate in the bud. Stamens 5; anthers ovate. Disc fleshy, annular, 3–4-lobed. Ovary 3–4-celled; styles as many as the cells, recurved. Fruit globose, depressed and hollow at the summit, obscurely 3–4-grooved, dry and corky, covered with a black and shining epidermis, 3–4-celled. Seeds as many as the cells.
A monotypic genus, confined to the islands immediately to the south of New Zealand. It is chiefly separated from Aralia by the hollow axis of the fruit, which gives the summit a peculiar cup-shaped appearance.
