GINSENG FAMILY. 155 



keeled. Channels without oil-tubes. Seed curved in at top and bottom 

 Involucre 1-leaved or 0. Involucels dimidiate, about 3-leaved. Flowers 

 white, or tinged red before expanding. 



1. C. SATI'VUM, L. Leaves bipinnately dissected, segments of the lower 



ones broad-cuneate, incised-dentate, of the upper ones narrow and 



linear; carpels hemispherical. 



CULTIVATED Com AND RUM. Coriander. 



Fr. Coriaudre. Germ. Der. Koriander. Span. Cilantro. 



Plant smooth. Root annual (sometimes biennial, DC.). Stem 1-2 feet high, slender, 

 striate, somewhat branched at summit. Umbels 3-5-rayed. Umbellets of numerous short 

 unequal rays. Carpels very concave on the face, cohering by their margins so as to form 

 apparently a simple globose fruit with 2 oil-tubes in a loose membrane, which covers the 

 inner face of the seed. 



Gardens : cultivated. Native of Tartary and the East. Fl. June-July. Fr. August- 

 September. 



Obs. Occasionally cultivated for its aromatic fruit. The odor of the 

 fresh herb is very offensive, notwithstanding which the Tartars are said 

 to prepare a favorite soup from it. 



ORDER XXXIV. ARALIA'CE^E. (GINSENG FAMILY.) 



Perennial Tierbs, shrubs or trees, with alternate, mostly compound leaves, destitute of 

 stipules, and mostly umbellate flowers the umbels often paniculate. Calyx adherent to the 

 ovary, the limb usually very small, toothed or entire. Petals 5, valvate in aestivation. 

 Stamens us many as the petals and alternate with them. Ovary 3 -several united carpels, 

 with a solitary suspended ovule in each cell ; styles as many as the cells sometimes 

 united. Fruit baccate or drupaceous, sometimes nearly dry, but the carpels not sepa- 

 rating. 



A small Order, with much the same characters as Umbelliferse, but with usually more 

 than 2 styles, and the fruit a 3 -several-celled drupe. 



1. ARA'LIA, L. WILD SARSAPARILLA. GINSENG. 



[Name of unknown derivation ; supposed to be of Canadian origin.] 



Flowers more or less polygamous. Calyx 5-toothed, teeth very short or 

 almost obsolete. Petals 5, spreading. Stamens 5, on short filaments. 

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

 and united. Berry 2 - 5-celled with a single suspended seed in each cell, 

 somewhat 5-lobed. Herbs or shrubs,-^- sometimes prickly. Leaves mostly 

 decompound. Flowers white or greenish, in umbels. 

 1. ARALIA. Flowers monaciously polygamous or perfect, the umbels 

 usually in corymbs or panicles ; styles or cells of the (black or dark purple) 

 fruit 5 ; stems herbaceous or woody ; ultimate divisions of the leaves pinnate. 



1, A, racemo'sa, L. Stem herbaceous, smooth, divaricately branched ; 

 leaves ternately and quinately decompound ; leaflets cordate-ovate, acu- 

 minate, doubly serrate ; racemes axillary, compound, paniculately urn- 

 bellulate ; iuvolucels small. 



RACEMOSE ARALIA. Spikenard. 



Root thick, aromatic. Stem 3 -5 feet high, with spreading and somewhat dichotomous 

 branches. Leaflets S -6 or 8 inches long, slightly hairy, mostly petiolulate. Flowers in. 



