160 coknace^:. (dogwood family.) 



beneath. — River-banks, Pennsylvania to Kentucky and southward : common in 

 cultivation. July, August. 



2. A. a'»cesit«S», L. (Spikenard.) Herbaceous; stem widely branched ; 

 leaflets heart-ovate, pointed, doubly serrate, slightly downy ; umbels racemosc- 

 panicled; styles united below. — Rich woodlands. July. — Well known for its 

 spicy-aromatic large roots. There are traces of stipules at the dilated base of 

 the leafstalks. 



* * Umbels 2-7, corymbed : stem short, somewhat woody. 



3. A. Iiispiila, Michx. (Bristly Sarsaparilla. Wild Elder.) 

 Stem (l°-2° high) bristly, leafy, terminating in a peduncle bearing several um- 

 bels ; leaves twice pinnate ; leaflets oblong-ovate, acute, cut-serrate. — Rocky 

 places ; common northward, and southward along the mountains. June. 



4. A. MltdBCaiKlis, L. (Wild Sarsaparilla.) Stem scarcely rising 

 out of the ground, smooth, bearing a single long-stalked leaf and a shorter naked scape, 

 with 2-7 umbels ; leaflets oblong-ovate or oval, pointed, serrate, 5 ou each of 

 the 3 divisions. — Moist woodlands ; with the same range as No. 3. May, June. 

 — The aromatic horizontal roots, which arc several feet long, arc employed as 

 a substitute for the officinal Sarsaparilla. Leafstalks 1° high. 



§2. GfNSENG, Decaisne & Planchon. (Panax, L.) — Floicers dioxiously po- 

 lygamous : styles and cells of the (red or reddish) fruit 2 or 3 : stem herbaceous, low, 

 simple, tearing at its summit a whorl of 3 palmately 3 - 7-foliolate leaves (or per- 

 haps rather a single and sessile twice-compound leaf), and a single umbel on a slen- 

 der naked peduncle. 



5. A. qmiUJBSeioiia. (GlNSBNG.) 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; Jrmt bright red. (Panax 

 quinquefolium, L.) — Rich and cool woods; becoming rare. July. 



6. A. trifolia« (Dwarf Ginseng. Ground-nut.) Root or tuber glob- 

 ular, 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, common northward, April, May. 



Hedera Helix, the European Ivy, is almost the only other representative 

 of this family in the northern temperate zone. 



Order 54. CORNACEiE. (Dogwood Family.) 



Shrubs or trees (rarely herbaceous), with oppositeor 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 epigy- 

 nous disk in the perfect flowers ; style one; a single anatropous ovule hang- 

 ing from the top of the cell; the fruit a I- 2-seeded drupe; embryo nearly 

 the length of the albumen, loith large and foliaceous cotyledons. — A small 

 family, represented by Cornus, and by a partly apetalous genus, Nyssa, 

 (Bark bitter and tonic.) 



