AKALIACE/E. (GINSENG FAMILY.) 159 



slender and smooth tall perennial, with the leaves 2-tcrnately divided into nar- 

 row linear leaflets or lobes. Involucre scarcely any : involucels short and bristle- 

 form. Flowers white. (Name from eu, well, and \6(fros, a en it, not well 

 applied to a plant which has no crest at all.) 



1. E. Amcricanus, Nutt. Darby Plains, near Columbus, Ohio (Sid- 

 livant), Illinois, and south west ward. July. Root a cluster of small tubers. 



27. ERIGENIA, Nutt. HARBINGER-OF-SPRING. 



Calyx-teeth obsolete. Petals obovate or spatulate, flat, entire. Fruit twin; 

 the carpels incurved at top and bottom, nearly kidney-form, with 5 very slender 

 ribs, and several small oil -tubes in the interstices : inner face of the seed hol- 

 lowed into a broad deep cavity. A small and smooth vernal plant, producing 

 from a deep round tuber a simple stem, bearing one or two 2 - 3-ternately divided 

 leaves, and a somewhat imperfect and leafy bracted compound umbel. Flowers 

 few, white. (Name from qpiyevys, born in the spring.) 



1. E. Imlbosa, Nutt. Alluvial soil, Western New York and Penn., to 

 Wisconsin, Kentucky, &c. March, April. Stem 3' - 9' high. 



The cultivated representatives of this family are chiefly the PARSLEY (Apium 

 Petroselimim), CELERY (A. graveolens), DILL (Ancthum graveolens), FENNEL (A. 

 Fczniculum), CARAWAY (Carum Cdrui), and CORIANDER (Coridndrum satwuni), 



ORDER 53. ARALIACE^E. (GINSENG FAMILY.) 



Herbs, shrubs, or trees, with much the same characters as Umbelliferae, but 

 with usually more than 2 styles, and the fruit a 3 - several-celled drupe. 

 (Albumen mostly fleshy. Petals flat.) Represented only by the genus. 



1. ARAL.IA, Tourn. GINSENG. WILD SARSAPARILLA. 



Flowers more or less polygamous. Calyx-tube coherent with the ovary, tho 

 teeth very short or almost obsolete. Petals 5, epigynous, oblong or obovate, 

 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, &c. warm and aromatic. 

 (Derivation obscure.) 



1 . ARALIA, L. Flowers monceciously 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 very numerous in a large compound panicle : leaves very large,, quinately or 



p innately decompound. 

 1. A. spinosa, L. (ANGELICA-TREE. HERCULES' CLUB | SJmib, or 



a low tree; Vie stout stem and stalks prickly; leaflets ovate, pointed, serrate, pale 



