Umbelliferae 275 



1. ARALIA L. 



Perennial herbs or shrubs, with alternate digitate or 

 compound Leaves, and small flowers in a mostly simple 

 umbel, these either solitary, racemed or panicled. Pedi- 

 cels jointed. Bracts small. Calyx 5-toothed or entire. 

 Petals 5, ovate, slightly imbricate. Stamens 5. Disk 

 depressed or rarely conical. Ovary 2-5-celled ; styles 

 free or united at base, becoming divaricate : stigmas ter- 

 minal. Fruit laterally compressed, becoming 8-5-angled, 

 fleshy externally ; endocarp chartaceous. 



1. A. Californica Wats. (California Spikenard.) Herba- 

 ceous, unarmed and nearly glabrous, stout, 2-4 m. bigh, from a 

 large thick root; leaves bipinnate or the upper pinnate, with 1-2 

 pairs of leaflets, these cordate-ovate, 10-20 cm. long or more, 

 shortly acuminate, simply or doubly serrate with short acute 

 teeth; uppermost leaves ovate-lanceolate: umbels in loose, ter- 

 minal and axillary, compound or simple racemose panicles which 

 are 3-6 dm. long, more or less glandular-tomentose; rays numer- 

 ous, 8-12 mm. long; involucres of several linear bractlets ; flowers 

 3—1 mm. long; disk and stylopodium obsolete; styles united to 

 the middle; fruit about 4 mm. long, reddish, becoming nearly 

 black. 



Frequent in canyons above 3000 feet. May-July. 



Family (57. UMBELLIFERAE. Carrot Family. 



Herbs with alternate decompound, compound or some- 

 times simple leaves, the petioles often dilated at the 

 base, the stems usually hollow. Stipules none or rarely 

 present and minute. Flowers small in compound or 

 simple umbels or rarely in heads, often polygamous. 

 Umbels and umbellets commonly involucrate or involu- 

 cellate. Calyx-tube wholly adnate to the ovary, its mar- 

 gin truncate or 5-toothed. Petals 5, inserted on the mar- 

 gin of the calyx, usually with an inflexed tip. Stamens 

 5, inserted on the epigynous disk ; filaments filiform ; 



