160 CORNACE.E. (DOGWOOD FAMILY.) 



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

 cultivation. July, August. 



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

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

 panieled; style* united bdow. 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, con/mbcd : stem short, someichaf woody. 



3. A. liispicla., Michx. (BRISTLY SARSAPARILLA. WILD ELDER.) 

 Stem (l-2 high) bristly, l[fy, 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. midiCJltiliS, 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 arc several feet long, are employed as 

 a substitute for the officinal Sarsaparilla. Leafstalks 1 high. 



2. GlNSENG, 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 - 7 -folio! ate leaves (or per' 

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

 der naked peduncle. 



5. A. qumquefolia. (GINSENG.) Root targe 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; fruit bright red. (P.nax 

 quinquefolium, L.} Rich mountain woods; becoming rare. July. 



6. At 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. CORNACEJE. (DOGWOOD FAMILY.; 



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

 the calyx-tube coherent with the 1 - 2-celled ovary, its limb minute, the pi'ial* 

 (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 lop of the cell; the fruit, a 1 -2-seeded drupe ; embryo nearly 

 the length of the albumen, with large and foliaceous cotyledons- A small 

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

 (Bark bitter and tonic.) 



