284 UMBELLIFER^. Erigenia. 



2 — 6 inches long. Involucral leaf resembling the radical one, but sessile and much smaller. 

 Umbellets usually 3, at length shorter than the leaflets of the involucel. Petals expanding, 

 rather obtuse, flat at the tip. Anthers dark purple. Styles subulate, longer than the ovary, 

 recurved. Fruit conspicuously didymous, the commissure narrow. Carpels gibbous, one of 

 them often abortive, deeply emarginate at each end ; the faces separating between the apex 

 and the base, so that there is often a perforation between the carpels. Vittae very small,' 

 indistinct, except at maturity. 



Shady rich soils, Buff"alo {Di-. Kinnicutt). March - April. This genus does not well 

 accord with any of the tribes of Umbellifer^e, as they are characterized by the latest vi'riters. 

 Mr. Sullivant, who first noticed the vitta;, truly remarks that the plant exhibits an union of the 

 campylospermous and cojlospermous structures. It is left for the present in the tribe in which 

 it was placed in the Flora of North America. 



Order XLIX. ARALIACE^E. Juss. The Aralia Tribe. 



Calyx adherent to the ovary ; the hirib usually very small, entire or toothed. 

 Petals 5 - 10, valvate in aestivation, rarely wanting. Stamens as many as the 

 petals. Ovary crowned with a disk, 2 - 15-celled, with a solitary suspended 

 ovule in each cell. Fruit drupaceous or baccate, sometimes nearly dry, the 

 carpels not separating : endocarp coriaceous or thin. Seed solitary in each 

 cell. Embryo short, at the base of copious fleshy albumen. — Shrubs, trees or 

 perennial herbs, with compound or simple leaves which are destitute of stipules ; 

 the petioles dilated and thickened at the base. Flowers mostly umbellate, often 

 polygamous; the umbels commonly panicled or racemed. 



1. ARALIA. Linn. ; Endl. gen. A55S. aralia. 



[A name of unknown origin.] 



Flowers mostly perfect. Limb of the calyx short, 5-toothed or entire. Petals 5, spreading. 

 Stamens 5, alternate witli the petals : filaments short. Styles .'), often united below, at 

 length divaricate. Drupe baccate, 5-lobed, 5-celled ; the endocarp chartaceous. — Shrubs, 

 trees or perennial herbs, with mostly compound leaves. Umbels often panicled. 



1. Aralia racemosa, Linn. Spikenard. 



Stem herbaceous, divaricately branched, smootli ; leaves ternately and quinately de- 

 compound ; leaflets cordate-ovate, acuniinalc, doubly serrate ; umbels disposed in large doubly 



