198 ARALIACE^. (GINSENG FAMILY.) 



row longitudinal groove. Biennial poisonous herbs, with large decompound 

 leaves. Involucre and involucels 3 - 5-leaved, the latter 1 -sided. Flowers white. 

 (Kaveiov, the Greek name of the Hemlock, by which criminals and philosophers 

 were put to death at Athens.) 



1. C. MACULATUM, L. Smooffi; stem spotted; leaflets lanceolate, pinnati- 

 fid: involucels shorter than the umbellets. Waste places. July. A large 

 branching herb : the pale green leaves exhale a disagreeable odor when bruised. 

 A virulent narcotico-acrid poison, used in medicine. (Nat. from Eu.) 



26. EULOPHUS, Nutt. EULOPHUS. 



Calyx-teeth small. Fruit ovoid, contracted at the sides and somewhat twin ; 

 the carpels smooth, indistinctly ribbed, and with a close row of oil-tubes : inner 

 face of the seed longitudinally channelled, the cross-section semilunar. A slen- 

 der, smooth perennial : leaves 2-ternately divided into narrow linear leaflets. In- 

 volucre scarcely any : involucels bristle-form. Flowers white. (Name from ev, 

 well, and Ao</>os, a crest, not well applied to a plant with no crest at all. ) 



1. E. Americ&nus, Nutt. -r- Darby plains, hear Columbus, Ohio (Sulli' 

 vant), Illinois, and southwestward. July. Root a cluster of small tubers. 



27. ERIGENIA, Nutt. HARBINGER-OF-SPRING. 



Calyx-teeth obsolete. Petals obovate or spatulate, flat, entire. Fruit twin ; 

 the carpels incurved at top and bottom, nearly kidney-form, with 5 very slender 

 ribs, and several small oil-tubes in the interstices : inner face of the seed hollowed 

 into a broad deep cavity. A small and smooth vernal plant, producing from 

 a deep round tuber a simple stem, bearing one or two 2 - 3-ternately divided 

 leaves, and a somewhat imperfect and leafy-bracted compound umbel. Flowers 

 few, white. (Name from rjpiyfvrjs, born in the spring.) 



1. E. bulbosa, Nutt. Alluvial soil, Western New York and Penn. to 

 Wisconsin, Kentucky, &c. March, April. Stem 3' - 9' high. 



ORDER 47. ARAOACE^E. (GINSENG FAMILY.) 



Herbs, shrubs, or trees, with muck the same characters as Umbelliferse, but 

 with usually more than 2 styles, and the fruit a few - several-celled drupe. 

 (Albumen mostly fleshy. Petals not inflexed.) Represented here only 

 by the genus 



1. ARAL I A, Tourn. GINSENG. WILD SARSAPARILLA. 



Flowers more or less polygamous. Calyx-tube coherent with the ovary, the 

 teeth very short or almost obsolete. Petals 5, epigynous, oblong or obovate, 

 lightly imbricated in the bud, deciduous. Stamens 5, epigynous, alternate with 

 the petals. Styles 2-5, mostly distinct and slender, or in the sterile flowers 

 short and united. Ovary 2 - 5-celled, with a single anatropous ovule suspended 

 from the top of each cell, ripening into a berry-like drupe, with as many seeds 

 as cells. Embryo minute. Leaves compound or decompound. Flowers white 

 or greenish, in umbels. Roots (perennial), bark, fruit, &c. warm and aromatic. 

 (Derivation obscure.) 



