THE GINSENG FAMILY 



ARALIACE^ Ventenat 



HIS family comprises about 52 genera, including some 450 species of 

 herbs, vines, shrubs, or trees, of wide distribution, but especially 

 numerous in the tropics. The well-known evergreen climber, I\y, 

 Hedera Helix Linnaeus, of Europe, frequently planted, is probably the 

 best known member of the family; several are of importance as drugs, especially 

 Ginseng, the root of Panax qiiinquejoUiim Linnaeus, of woods in eastern North 

 America, valuable more on account of oriental superstitions than for any thera- 

 peutic properties. Spikenard, the root of Aralia racemosa Linnaeus, has more 

 therapeutic value as a tonic and alterative, and is much used in domestic practice. 

 The AraliacecB have stipulate, alternate mostly compound leaves. The flowers 

 are perfect or polygamous, regular, variously clustered, often in great masses of 

 umbels; the calyx is joined to the ovary, 5-lobed; the corolla has mostly 5, some- 

 times 10 petals, inserted on the margin of the calyx; the stamens are of the same 

 number as the petals and alternate with them, their filaments short and distinct; 

 anthers introrse; the ovary is inferior, 2- to 5-celled, crowned by a disk; the styles 

 are of the same number as the cells of the ovary and sometimes united, the stig- 

 mas simple; ovules i to each cell. The fruit is a berry or drupe; the seeds are 

 solitary, flattened or somewhat 3-angled; endosperm wanting; embryo small and 

 straight. One arborescent species occurs in our area. 



HERCULES CLUB 



GENUS ARALIA [TOURNEFORT] LINN^US 

 Species Aralia spinosa Linnaeus 



'RALL\ comprises about 30 species, mostly herbs, natives of North 

 America and Asia. It is the typical genus of the family Araliaceae, 

 which includes genera with many arborescent species in warm and 

 temperate regions, a number of trees of this relationship occurring 

 in tropical America. Aralia racemosa Linnaeus, an herbaceous plant of our wood- 

 lands, is the type of the genus. 



The Hercules club, the only tree of the family existing in the wild state, within 

 the geographical area covered by this book, grows in moist or wet woodlands 

 from southern New York to Florida, westward to Pennsylvania, Indiana, Mis- 

 souri, and Texas. It is also known as Spikenard tree, Angelica tree, and Tooth- 



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