204 GINSENG FAMILY. 



pound, and the divisions with 5-7 pinnate leallots, which are ovate and 

 cut-serrate; petioles with large, inflated, membranaceous base ; flowers 

 greenish-white ; trait smooth and thin-wniged. 



A. hirsiita, Muhl. Dry ground, commoner S. ; stem 2'^-5° high, 

 rather slender, downy at top, as are the umbels and broadly winged 

 fruits ; leaflets thickish, ovate-oblong, serrate ; flowers bright white. 



15. HERACLEUM, COW rARSXIP. (Named after Hercules.) 

 Flowers summer. 2/ 



H. lanatum, Michx. Damp rich ground N. ; very stout, 4°-8° high, 

 wooUy-iiairy when young, unpleasantly strong-scented, with large cut 

 and toothed or lobed leaflets, some of them heart-shaped at base, and 

 broad umbels with white flowers and large fruits. 



16. PASTINACA, PARSNIP. (Latin name from prts(?(.s, food.) 



P. sat}/a, Linn. Common P. Run wild in low meadows, and then 

 rather poisonous ; cult, from Eu. for the esculent strong-scented root. 

 Tall, smooth, with grooved stem, coarse and cut-toothed or lobed leaflets, 

 and umbels of small yellow flowers, (i) (§) 



LV. ARALIACE^, GINSENG FAMILY. 



Like tlie foregoing family, but often shrubs or trees, usually 

 more than two styles and cells to the ovary and fruit, the 

 latter a berry or drupe. Besides a few choice and uncommon 

 shrubby house plants, represented only by the two following 

 genera. The flowers in both are more or less polygamous, and 

 the lobes or margin of the calyx very short or none. Petals 

 and stamens 5. 



1. ARALIA. Flowers in siinjjle or panicled umbels, white or greenish ; the jietals lightly 



overlapping in the bud. Styles 2-5, separate to the base, e.\-cept in sterile flowers. 

 Leaves compound or decompound. Root, baric, fruit, etc., warm-aromatic or pungenti 



2. HEDERA. Flowers in panicled or clustered umbels, greenish ; petals valvate In the 



bud. Ovary 5-celled ; the 5 styles united into a conical column. Leaves simple, 

 palmately ;3-o-lobed or angled. Woody stems climbing by rootlets. 



1. ARALIA. (Derivation obscure.) 21 



§ 1. Wild Saksai'arilf.a, etc. F/<ii'-< is /irrfirt or poli/f/amous with both 

 fertile and sterile on the same pJ mil ; ii,„l>r'ls more than one ; fruit black 

 or dark purple, spicy ; seeds or c //>■ hikI s/:/Ii's 5. 



* Large and leafy-stemmed, with very compoxind leaves sometimes 2° or 

 3° across and tcith many umbels in a large compound panicle ; flowers 

 in Slimmer. 



A. spin6sa, Linn. Anoei.ica Tukk, IIercci.ks' Ci.irn. River banks 

 from I'enn. S., and planted ; a shrub or low tree, of peculinr ;is]M'ct, the 

 simple stout trunk rising C>°-20° high and beset with large priiklis, Inaiing 

 immense leaves with ovate serrate leaflets and corymbedorpanided unilx Is. 



A. racem6sa, Linn. Spikenakd. Woodlands in rich soil, with her- 

 baceous stems i]°-i)° high, from a thick aromatic root, not prickly, widely 

 spreading branches, heart-ovate leaflets doubly serrate and slightly downy, 

 and racemed-panicled umbels. 



