WHITE 



The painted trillium, T. erythrocarpum, is also less large and 

 showy than the great white trillium, but it is quite as pleasing. 

 Its white petals are painted at their base with red stripes. This 

 species is very plentiful in the Adirondack and Catskill Moun- 

 tains. 



GROUND-NUT. DWARF GINSENG. 



Aralia trifolia. Ginseng Family. 



Stem. Four to eight inches high. Leaves. Three in a whorl, divided 

 into from three to five leaflets. Flowers. White, in an umbel. Fruit. 

 Yellowish, berry-like. Root. A globular tuber. 



The tiny white flowers of the dwarf ginseng are so closely 

 clustered as to make " one feathery ball of bloom," to quote Mr. 

 Hamilton Gibson. This little plant resembles its larger relative, 

 the true ginseng. It blossoms in our rich open woods early in 

 spring, and hides its small round tuber so deep in the earth that 

 it requires no little care to uproot it without breaking the slender 

 stem. This tuber is edible and pungent-tasting, giving the plant 

 its name of ground-nut. 



GINSENG. 



Aralia quinqtie folia. Ginseng Family. 



Root. Large and spindle-shaped, often forked. Stem. About one foot 

 high. Leaves. Three in a whorl, divided into leaflets. Flowers. Green- 

 ish-white, in a simple umbel. Fruit. Bright red, berry-like. 



This plant is well known by name, but is yearly becoming, 

 more scarce. The aromatic root is so greatly valued in China for 

 its supposed power of combating fatigue and old age that it can 

 only be gathered by order of the emperor. The forked specimens 

 are believed to be the most powerful, and their fancied likeness 

 to the human form has obtained for the plant the Chinese title 

 of Jin-chen (from which ginseng is a corruption), and the Indian 

 one of Garan-toguen, both of which, strangely enough, are said 

 to signify, like a man. The Canadian Jesuits first began to ship 

 the roots of the American species to China, where they sold at 

 about five dollars a pound. At present they are said to com- 

 mand about one-fifth of that price in the home market. 



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