160 CORNACE^E. (DOGWOOD FAMILY.) 



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

 cultivation. July, August. 



2. A. racciliosa, L. (SPIKENARD.) Herbaceous; stem widely branched; 

 leaflets heart-ovate, pointed, doubly sen-ate, slightly downy; umbels raccmose- 

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

 Bpii-y-aromsitic large roots. There are traces of stipules at the dilated base of 

 the leafstalks. 



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



3. A. liispid:i, 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. midicailliS, 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 on each of 

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

 The aromatic horizontal roots, which are several feet long, are employed as 

 a substitute for the ofiicinal Sarsaparilla. Leafstalks 1 high. 



$2. GtNSENG, Decaisne & Planchon. (Panax, L.} Flowers diceciously po- 

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

 simple, bearing at its summit a whorl of 3 palmately 3 - T-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. quinqucfdlia. (GINSENG.) Root large and ppiitdle-shaped, often 

 forked (4' -9' long, aromatic) ; stem 1 high; leaflets long-stalked, mostly 5, large 

 and thin, obovafce-oblong, pointed ; styles mostly '2 ; fruit brig/it red. (Pnnax 

 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. CORNACE^E. (DOGWOOD FAMILY.) 



Shrubs or trees (rarely herbaceous), with oppositenr alternate simple leaves; 

 the calyx-tube coherent with the 1 - 2-celled ovary it* limb minute, the petals 

 (valvate in the bud) and as many stamens borne on the margin of an CJ>'KJ>I- 

 nous disk in the perfect flowers ; style one; a single amttropons antic, hang- 

 ing from the top of the cell; the fruit a I - 2-seeded drnpe ; embryo nirl>j 

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

 family, represented by Cornus, and by a partly apetalous gunus, Nyss;v 

 (Bark bitter and tonic.) 



