ARALIACEAE 275 



IB. In Limestone Creek and in a slough in the Tennessee River bot- 

 toms, Limestone County. 



6A. Tuscaloosa and Bibb Counties (Mohr). 



13. Near Andalusia (and just south of the state line near Florala). 



15. Near Orange Beach, Baldwin County. 



Lagerstrociuia Indie a, L., the crepe myrtle, a small tree commonly culti- 

 vated for ornament in both city and country, sometimes persists for years 

 after the house near which it was planted disappears, and may spread a 

 little by suckers, but it is doubtful if it propagates itself spontaneously by 

 seed. Dr. Mohr reported it as established in Mobile County. 



ARALIACEAE. Ginseng Family. 



About 50 genera and 500 species, mostly shrubs and herbs, 

 widely distributed. Mostly aromatic ; some medicinal and some 

 ornamental. 



ARALIA, Linnaeus. (Spikenard, Axgelica, Sarsap.\rilla, etc.) 



Mostly herbs. The following is the only shrubby one in the 

 United States : 



Aralia spinosa, L. Prickly Ash. (So called in the southern 



states, but it is not the prickly ash of northern books.) 



A woody plant of tropical aspect, with a prickly, usually sim- 

 ple erect stem, sometimes as much as six inches in diameter and 

 thirty feet tall, but usually not over one inch by six feet. Leaves 

 compound, over a foot long and wide. (A leaf brought to the 

 University from a young sprout in the near-by woods on May 6, 

 1921, was 6 feet 9 3^ inches long, with the low^est side branches 

 about 3 feet loi^ig, and had 250 leaflets.) Flowers small, numer- 

 ous, in large compound clusters, in midsummer. Fruit a small 

 blackish berry. 



Sometimes cultivated for ornament. The bark is aromatic 

 and often used in domestic medicine, probably in much the same 

 way as the northern prickly ash {Xanthoxylnm ; see page 225), 

 but it has not yet obtained recognition in the pharmacopoeias, or 

 even in the U. S. Dispensatory. 



Grows in rich woods, hammocks, bluffs, bottoms, etc.. where 



it is pretty well protected from fire ; in nearly all parts of the 



state south of the Tennessee Valley. 



2A. Madison, Marshall and DeKalb Counties. Cullman County 

 <Mohr). 



2B. Walker and Tuscaloosa Counties. 



