Part 74 (1/2)

ORDER 49. ARALIaCEae. (GINSENG FAMILY.)

_Herbs, shrubs, or trees, with much the same characters as_ Umbelliferae, _but with usually more than 2 styles, and the fruit a few--several-celled drupe._--Alb.u.men mostly fleshy. Petals not inflexed.

1. ARaLIA, Tourn. GINSENG. WILD SARSAPARILLA.

Flowers more or less polygamous. Calyx-tube coherent with the ovary, the teeth very short or almost obsolete. Petals 5, epigynous, oblong or obovate, lightly imbricated in the bud, deciduous. Stamens 5, epigynous, alternate with the petals. Styles 2--5, mostly distinct and slender, or in the sterile flowers short and united. Ovary 2--5-celled, with a single anatropous ovule suspended from the top of each cell, ripening into a berry-like drupe, with as many seeds as cells. Embryo minute.--Leaves compound or decompound. Flowers white or greenish, in umbels. Roots (perennial), bark, fruit, etc., warm and aromatic.

(Derivation obscure.)

-- 1. ARALIA. _Flowers monciously polygamous or perfect, the umbels usually in corymbs or panicles; styles and cells of the (black or dark purple) fruit 5; stems herbaceous or woody; ultimate divisions of the leaves pinnate._

[*] _Umbels numerous in a large compound panicle; leaves very large, decompound._

1. A. spinsa, L. (ANGELICA-TREE. HERCULES' CLUB.) _Shrub, or a low tree; the stout stem and stalks p.r.i.c.kly_; leaflets ovate, pointed, serrate, pale beneath.--River-banks, Penn. to Ind., and south to the Gulf. July, Aug.

2. A. racemsa, L. (SPIKENARD.) _Herbaceous; stem widely branched; leaflets heart-ovate_, pointed, doubly serrate, slightly downy; umbels racemose; _styles united_.--Rich woodlands, N. Brunswick to Minn., south to the mountains of Ga. July. Well known for its spicy-aromatic large roots.

[*][*] _Umbels 2--7, corymbed; stem short, somewhat woody._

3. A. hispida, Vent. (BRISTLY SARSAPARILLA. WILD ELDER.) _Stem_ (1--2 high) _bristly, leafy_, terminating in a peduncle bearing several umbels; leaves twice pinnate; leaflets oblong-ovate, acute, cut-serrate.--Rocky and sandy places, Newf. to Dak., south to the mountains of N. C. June.

4. A. nudicaulis, L. (WILD SARSAPARILLA.) _Stem scarcely rising out of the ground, smooth, bearing a single long-stalked leaf_ (1 high) _and a shorter naked scape_, with 2--7 umbels; leaflets oblong-ovate or oval, pointed, serrate, 5 on each of the 3 divisions.--Moist woodlands; range of n. 3. May, June. The long horizontal aromatic roots a subst.i.tute for officinal Sarsaparilla.

-- 2. GiNSENG. _Flowers diciously polygamous; styles and cells of the red or reddish fruit 2 or 3; stem herbaceous, low, simple, bearing a whorl of 3 palmately 3--7-foliolate leaves, and a simple umbel on a slender peduncle._

5. A. quinqueflia, Decsne. & Planch. (GINSENG.) _Root large and spindle-shaped, often forked_ (4--9' long, aromatic); stem 1 high; _leaflets long-stalked_, mostly 5, large and thin, obovate-oblong, pointed; styles mostly 2; _fruit bright red_.--Rich and cool woods, Vt.

and W. Conn. to Minn., south to the mountains of Ga. July.

6. A. triflia, Decsne. & Planch. (DWARF GINSENG. GROUND-NUT.) _Root or tuber globular_, deep in the ground (pungent to the taste, not aromatic); stems 4--8' high; _leaflets 3--5, sessile_ at the summit of the leafstalk, narrowly oblong, obtuse; styles usually 3; _fruit yellowish_.--Rich woods, N. Scotia to Minn., south to Ga. April, May.

ORDER 50. CORNaCEae. (DOGWOOD FAMILY.)

_Shrubs or trees (rarely herbaceous), with opposite or alternate simple leaves, the calyx-tube coherent with the 1--2-celled ovary, its limb minute, the petals (valvate in the bud) and as many stamens borne on the margin of an epigynous disk in the perfect flowers; style one; a single anatropous ovule hanging from the top of the cell; the fruit a 1--2-seeded drupe; embryo nearly as long as the alb.u.men, with large foliaceous cotyledons._--Including two genera, of which Nyssa is partly apetalous. Bark bitter and tonic.

1. Cornus. Flowers perfect, 4-merous. Leaves mostly opposite.

2. Nyssa. Flowers diciously polygamous, 5-merous. Leaves alternate.

1. CoRNUS, Tourn. CORNEL. DOGWOOD.

Flowers perfect (or in some foreign species dicious). Calyx minutely 4-toothed. Petals 4, oblong, spreading. Stamens 4; filaments slender.

Style slender; stigma terminal, flat or capitate. Drupe small, with a 2-celled and 2-seeded stone.--Leaves opposite (except in one species), entire. Flowers small, in open naked cymes, or in close heads surrounded by a corolla-like involucre. (Name from _cornu_, a horn; alluding to the hardness of the wood.)

-- 1. _Flowers greenish, in a head or close cl.u.s.ter, surrounded by a large and showy, 4-leaved, corolla-like, white or rarely pinkish involucre; fruit bright red._

1. C. Canadensis, L. (DWARF CORNEL. BUNCH-BERRY.) _Stems low and simple_ (5--7' high) from a slender creeping and subterranean rather woody trunk; leaves scarcely petioled, the lower scale-like, the upper crowded into an apparent whorl in sixes or fours, ovate or oval, pointed; _leaves of the involucre ovate_; fruit globular.--Damp cold woods, N. J.

to Ind. and Minn., and the far north and west. June.