DOGWOOD FAMILY. 205 



* * Smaller; short stems scarcely woody at base; few umbels ; flowers 

 early summer. 



A. hispida, Vent. BRISTLY SARSAPARILLA. Rocky places ; bristly 

 stems l-2 high, leafy below, naked and bearing corymbed umbels 

 above ; leaves twice pinnate, the leaflets oblong-ovate and cut-toothed. 



A. nudicaulis, Linn. COMMON WILD S. Low ground ; the aromatic, 

 horizontal, slender roots running 3-5 long, used as a substitute for offi- 

 cinal Sarsaparilla ; the smooth, proper stem rising only 2'-4', bearing a 

 single long-stalked leaf of 5 ovate or oval serrate leaflets on each of the 3 

 divisions of the petiole, and a short peduncle with 2-7 umbels. 



2. GINSENG. Sterile and fertile flowers usually on separate simple- 

 stemmed plants, in a single slender-stalked umbel, below it a single 

 whorl of digitate leaves; styles and cells of the fruit 2 or 3. 



A. quinquef6lia, Dec. & Planch. GINSENG. Root spindle-shaped, 

 warm-aromatic, 4'-9' long ; stem 1 high ; leaflets 5 at the end of each 

 of the 3 petioles, slender-stalked, thin, obovate-oblong, pointed, serrate ; 

 flowers in summer ; fruit red. Rich woods N. Also cult. Medicinal. 



A. trifdlia, Dec. & Planch. DWARF G. or GROUNDNUT. Low woods, 

 N. ; 4'-8' high, from a deep, globular, pungent-tasted root ; leaflets 3 or 

 sometimes 6 sessile on the end of each of the 3 petioles, narrow-oblong 

 and obtuse ; flowers in spring ; fruit orange-yellow. 



2. HEDERA, IVY. (The ancient Latin name.) Flowers late summer. 



H. Helix, Linn. TRUE or ENGLISH IVY. Woody climber, with ever- 

 green, glossy, rounded heart-shaped or kidney-shaped and 3-lobed or 3- 

 angled, often variegated leaves, or in some varieties more deeply 3-7-cleft, 

 yellowish- green flowers, and blackish berries ; covers shaded walls, etc., 

 adhering by its rootlets, but scarcely hardy N. Eu. 



LVI. CORNACE^E, DOGWOOD FAMILY. 



Shrubs, trees, or one or two mere herbs, with simple leaves, 

 small, often imperfect flowers, calyx tube in the perfect or pis- 

 tillate ones coherent with the surface of the 1-2-celled ovary, 

 which is crowned with the small calyx teeth or minute cup, 

 bearing the petals (valvate in the bud), and stamens of the 

 same number ; style and stigma single ; ovule and seed solitary 

 in the cells, hanging from the summit; fruit a small drupe 

 or berry. Petals sometimes 0. 



* Flowers perfect, in cymes, close clusters, or heads. 



\. CORNUS. Minute teeth of the calyx, petals, and stamens 4. Style slender ; stigma ter- 

 minal. Berry-like little drupe with a 2-celled, 2-seeded stone. Leaves entire, opposite 

 except in one species, deciduous. Bark very bitter, tonic. Flower cluster often 

 subtended by a corolla-like involucre. 



* Floivers polygamous or dioecious, in axillary clusters or solitary. 



t. AUCUBA. Flowers dioecious, dull purple. Teeth or lobes of the calyx and petals 4. 

 Stamens in the sterile flowers 4, with short filaments and oblong anthers. Fertile 

 flowers with a 1 -celled ovary, becoming an oblong, red berry in fruit ; style short ; 

 stigma capitate. Leaves opposite, coriaceous and glossy, evergreen, smooth, more or 

 less toothed. 



