GINSENG FAMILY. Araliacese. 



GINSENG FAMILY. Araliacece. 



Generally herbs in our range, with compound, mostly 

 alternate leaves and tiny five-petaled flowers in crowded 

 clusters ; stamens five, alternate with the petals ; the 

 flowers perfect or more or less polygamous ; staminate 

 and pistillate flowers occurring on the same plant. 

 Fruit a cluster of berries, which with the root, bark, etc., 

 are slightly aromatic. Visited by numerous woodland 

 insects as well as the bees of the genus Halictus, and oc- 

 casionally by butterflies. 



Spikenard ^- ^ a ^' branching, smooth woodland 



Aralia herb, with a round, blackish stem, and 



racemosa large compound leaves of generally 15-21 



Green=white ovate leaflets, heart-shaped at the base, 

 July-August finelv double-toothed, and deep green with 

 brownish stems. The greenish white flowers are ar- 

 ranged in small round clusters which in the aggregate 

 form a large, terminal, pointed spike, or perhaps several 

 smaller spikes form the base of the leaves. Visited by 

 tlie bees of the genus Halictus^ and the beelike flies 

 (Syrphidce). Fruit around dull brown-crimson berry (in 

 compact clusters) sometimes, when over-ripe dull brown- 

 purple. The large roots are esteemed for their spicy and 

 aromatic flavor. 3-5 feet high. Rich woodlands from 

 Me., south through the mountains to Ga., and west to 

 Minn., S. Dak., and Mo. 



A characteristically fine-hairy plant, 

 Bristly Sar= 



with similar leaves generally hairy on the 



Wild Elder veins beneath and irregularly double- 

 Araiia hispida toothed ; they are perhaps longer and 

 Dull white more pointgd than those of Aralia race- 

 June-early nwsat an d rounded at the base. The tiny 

 dull white flowers are arranged in some- 

 what hemispherical clusters, several of which crown the 

 summit of the stem. The fruit is somewhat oblate- 

 spheroidal in shape and dull brown-crimson when ripe. 

 12-34 inches high. In rocky woods, from Me., south to 

 N. C., in the mts. ; west to Minn. Two rare forms of A. 

 nudicaulis (next page) are : var. elongata, with narrower 

 longer leaflets. Catskill Mts., and var. prolifera, with 

 25-40 leaflets and 5-70 little flower-groups, w. N. J. 

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