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. 



