144 BOTANY. 



Order 124. Araliace^, the Ginseng Family. Calyx entire or toothed. 

 Petals definite, two- to five- or ten-deciduous, occasionally ; aestivation 

 valvate. Stamens, as many as the petals, or twice as many, inserted 

 below the margin of an epigynous disk. Ovary adherent to the tube of 

 the calyx, two- or more-celled ; ovules solitary, pendulous, anatropal ; styles, 

 two or more, distinct or connate ; stigmas simple. Fruit usually succulent, 

 two- to fifteen-celled, covered by the calycine limb. Seeds solitary, 

 pendulous, adhering to the endocarp ; albumen fleshy ; embryo small ; 

 radicle pointing to the hilum. Trees, shrubs, or herbaceous plants, with 

 alternate, exstipulate leaves, and umbellate or capitate flowers. They are 

 found both in tropical and in cold regions. Lindley enumerates 21 genera, 

 including 160 species. Examples : Aralia, Panax, Adoxa, Hedera. The 

 fiist three genera, with eight species, are the only North American. 



The plants of this order are allied to Umbelliferse, but do not possess 

 poisonous qualities to any very marked degree. A species of Panax yields 

 the Ginseng of the Chinese, for which a North American species, P. 

 quinquefolium, serves as a substitute. An arborescent species, P. horridum, 

 forms almost impenetrable thickets in Oregon. Aralia nudicaulis is used 

 in the United States under the name of Sarsaparilla. The Ivy, Hedera 

 helix, belongs to this order. 



Aralia nudicaulis, Sarsaparilla (not the true). United States {pi. Qb,fig. 6) : 

 a, a compound leaf ; h, flower branch ; c, a flower-bud ; d, an open flower ; 

 e, petal ; /, pistil ; g, cross-section of ovary ; A, ripe berry ; i, seed. 



Order 125. UiMbellikerjE, the Umbelliferous Family. Calyx adherent 

 to the ovary; the limb very small, five-toothed, or entire. Petals five, 

 inserted on the outside of the epigynous disk, usually inflexed at the point, 

 the inflexed portion cohering with the lamina ; aestivation somewhat 

 imbricate, or farely valvate. Stamens five, alternate with the petals, 

 inflexed in aestivation ; anthers ovate, introrse. Ovary composed of two 

 (very rarely more) united carpels, invested with the coherent calyx, two- 

 celled, with a solitary suspended ovule in each cell : styles two, their bases 

 dilated and thickened into a fleshy body {shjlopodium), which covers the 

 top of the ovary ; stigmas simple. Fruit consisting of two dry carpels 

 (often termed mericarps), which adhere by their faces (commissure) to a 

 common axis {carpopho7~e), at length separating from each other, and 

 suspended from the summit of the carpophore, each carpel indehiscent, 

 marked with five longitudinal primary ribs, one opposite each petal and 

 each stamen, and often with five alternating secondary ones ; in the 

 substance of the pericarp are usually several longitudinal canals or 

 receptacles (vittce), filled with a colored aromatic oil or turpentine, which 

 are commonly lodged in the spaces (intervals) between the ribs, but 

 sometimes opposite them. Seed anatropous, usually coherent with the 

 carpel, rarely loose. Embryo minute at the base of the copious horny 

 albumen. Herbs, or rarely suffrutescent plants : the stems usually fistular 

 and furrowed. Leaves alternate (or very rarely opposite), usually pinnately 

 or ternately divided ; the petioles mostly dilated and sheathing at the base 

 Flowers in umbels, usually with an involucre. 

 144 



