Wild Flowers East of the Rockies 227 



GINSENG FAMILY (Araliaceae). 



A family of herbs with compound leaves and usual- 

 ly perfect, tiny flowers in umbels or clusters. 



WILD SARSAPARILLA (Aralia nudicaulis) has a 

 single large, compound leaf on a long stem from the 

 creeping, fragrant, aromatic root; the leaf is divided 

 into three branching divisions, each containing five 

 ovate, toothed leaflets. This single leaf is often mis- 

 takenly called three. The flowers are gathered into 

 three, rounded umbels, on short pedicels, from the 

 top of a long stem that joins the leaf -stem near its 

 base; each cluster bears many, tiny, five-parted, 

 greenish-white flowers with reflexed petals. It is a 

 very decorative plant, common in moist woodland 

 from Newfoundland to Minn, and southwards. It is 

 often locally known as "Umbrella-plant" because of 

 the manner in which the large leaf spreads protecting- 

 ly over the round, flower clusters. 



GINSENG (Panax quinquefolium) is well known as 

 the plant that is collected and cultivated for the thick, 

 fleshy, branching roots. Enormous quantities of these 

 roots are annually shipped to China, where they com- 

 mand large prices because of supposed medicinal pro- 

 perties. The plant grows from 8 to 18 inches high. 

 Three compound leaves, each consisting of five, ovate- 

 pointed, toothed, short-stemmed leaflets, radiate from 

 near the top of the smooth stem. From six to twenty, 

 tiny, 5-parted, yellowish-white flowers are in a round 

 umbel, on a slender, upright peduncle above the 

 leaves. It is found in rich, cold woods from Quebec 

 to Minn, and South to Ala. and Mo. 



DWARF GINSENG (Panax trifolium) is a tiny spe- 

 cies from 4 to 8 inches high. It has a spherical root, 

 slender stem, three leaves compounded of three leaf- 

 lets each, and numerous, tiny white flowers in an 

 umbel above them. Common in rich woods from N. 

 S. to Minn, and southwards. 



