THE GINSENG FAMILY. 



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While I waved my umbrella, she waved the Aralia i)ran(h,and so the engine 

 was signalled. By a strange individual on the train who professed to be a 

 "sympathetic, hypnotic, magnetic healer," we were liit-n told that the ber- 

 ries as well as the plant's roots 

 were made into a stimulant to 

 cure rheumatism. 



A.racenidsa, iVmerican spike- 

 nard, bears also its numerous 

 umbels of small greenish white 

 flowers in a dense, hairy panicle 

 and appears a splendid plant, 

 especially as its masses of berry- 

 like fruit are beginning to ripen. 

 Its large leaves are ternately 

 compound ; the cordate leaflets 

 being irregularly serrate, thin 

 and rather rough on both sides. 

 Its herbaceous stem is strong 

 and with thick spreading 

 branches, which, however, are 

 unarmed, and its roots are aro- 

 matic and fragrant. 



A. 7iudicaiilis^ wild sarsa- 

 parilla, is readily distinguished 

 from either of the two preceding 

 species, as its bloom grows in 

 three or five long peduncled 

 umbels at the end of a naked 

 scape. Moreover, from the 

 base arises a solitary leaf. It is "'./'./u'^. „ i 



pinnately three to five-foliate, the leaflets being oblong ovate and serrate, 

 and by the time the plant's fruit matures it has become so large as greatly 

 to tower above it. Very generally the people gather its liorizontal. aromatic 

 rootstock, either to sell to chemists f)r use themselves as a flavouring for 

 summer drinks. It takes somewhat the place of true sarsaparilla. 



A. hispida, bristly sarsaparilla, or wild elder, frequently occurs through 

 the mountainous parts of North Carolina and from there nortinvard. Its 

 herbaceous, leafy stem grows from one to two feet high and is very bristly. 

 The leaves are bipinnately divided and tlie flowers are clustered in umbris 

 at the end of long, naked peduncles. At no time very showy, the plant 

 appears best when in fruit. 



