170 KEY AND FLORA 



very short. Petals 5, very deciduous. Stamens 5, filaments 

 bent inward, anthers versatile. Ovary 2-celled or several- 

 celled; styles or stigmas as many as the cells; ovules 1 in 

 each cell. Fruit a drupe or berry. [The English ivy, an 

 important member of the family, flowers too late for school 



study.] 



ARALIA L. 



Perennial plants, with pungent or spicy roots, bark, and fruit. 

 Leaves once or more compound. Flowers more or less monoe- 

 cious, white or greenish, in umbels. Drupe, berry-like. 



1. A. hispida Vent. BRISTLY SARSAPARILLA, WILD ELDER. Stem 

 1-2 ft. high, rather shrubby below, with prickly bristles. Leaves 

 once or twice pinnate ; leaflets ovate, acute, cut-serrate, and often 

 lobed. Peduncle bearing several umbels of cream-colored flowers, in 

 a terminal corymb. Fruit blue-black. Dry fields and pastures E. 



2. A. nudicaulis L. WILD SARSAPARILLA. Perennial herb. Roots 

 very long, somewhat fleshy, aromatic ; stem very short or none. Leaf 

 solitary, from a sheathing base, petioled, 6-12 in. long; compound in 

 threes, each division 3-5-pinnate ; leaflets oval or ovate, taper-pointed, 

 finely and sharply serrate, smooth above, often downy below. Scape 

 nearly as long as the petiole, usually bearing 3 short, peduncled 

 umbels. Flowers greenish. Styles distinct. Fruit globose, black. In 

 rich woods. 



73. UMBELLIFERvE. PARSLEY FAMILY 



Herbs, usually with hollow, grooved stems. Flowers small, 

 generally in umbels. Limb of the calyx either wanting or 

 present only as a 5-toothed rim or margin around the top of 

 the ovary. Petals 5. Stamens 5, inserted on the disk, which 

 is borne by the ovary (Fig. 26). Ovary 2-celled and 2-ovuled 

 (Fig. 26), ripening into 2 akene-like carpels, which separate 

 from each other. Each carpel bears 5 longitudinal ribs, in 

 the furrows between which secondary ribs frequently occur. 

 On a cross section of the fruit oil tubes are seen, traversing 

 the interspaces between the ribs, and near the surface of the 

 fruit (Fig. 26, D). The seeds contain a small embryo^ inclosed 

 in considerable endosperm. [The family is a difficult one, 



