FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS 



201 



Fig. 175. G'ms&ng [Patiaxquinquefolia). After Britt & Brown, 111. Fl. Northern U. S. 



is the dwarf ginseng or ground-nut (P. trifolium), a smooth herb only 

 3-8 inches in height. The widely known English ivy (Hedera Helix) is 

 also a member of this family. It is a native of the Old World, but is 

 now grown in many varieties in nearly all parts of the world. The 

 celebrated rice paper of the Chinese is made from the pith of Fatsia 

 papyrifera. It is about 10 feet in height and 4 inches in diameter, with 

 a white elder-like i^ith an inch or more in diameter. A number of other 

 genera, as Acanthopanax, Polyscias, etc., are in ornamental cultivation. 



Family Umbelliferae. Carrot Family. A large, widely distributed 

 family of 170 genera and about 1600 species. They are herbs, often 

 strongly scented, with alternate, mostly compound leaves and small, 

 often inconspicuous flowers borne usually in single or compound umbels. 

 The calyx-tube is short, joined with the ovary and bears the 5 petals 

 on its margin. The stamens are also 5, but borne on a disk which sur- 

 rounds the pistil. The fruit is dry and composed of two flattened 

 carpels. Although closely circumscribed as a family, the genera and, 

 species are often limited and discriminated with great difiiculty. 



This is on the whole an important family and supplies a number of 

 edible plants, as the carrot, celery, parsnip, caraway, parsley and cori- 

 ander; and in old gardens, lovage and fennel are grown for their sweet- 

 aromatic foliage. Poison hemlock {Conium) water parsnip (Sium) and 

 water hemlock ( Cicuta) are rank-growing, ill-scented poisonous plants, 

 not infrequently causing the death of persons eating the roots or stems. 



Family Cornaceae. Dogwood Family. A small but interesting 

 group of about 16 genera and 85 species. They are shrubs or trees with 

 simple leaves and regular flowers in cymes, heads, or rarely solitary, and 



