170 KEY AND FLORA 



very short. Petals 5, very deciduous. Stamens 6, filaments 

 bent inward, anthers versatile. Ovary 2-celled or several- 

 celled ; styles or stigmas as many as the cells ; ovules 1 in 

 each cell. Fruit a drupe or berry. [The English ivy, an 

 important member of the family, flowers too late for school 

 study.] 



ARALIA L. 



Perennial plants, with pungent or spicy roots, bark, and fruit. 

 Leaves once or more compound. Flowers more or less monoe- 

 cious, white or greenish, in umbels. Drupe, berry-like. 



1. A. hispida Vent. Bristly Sarsaparilla, Wild Elder. Stem 

 1-2 ft. high, rather shrubby below, with prickly bristles. Leaves 

 once or twice pinnate ; leaflets ovate, acute, cut-serrate, and often 

 lobed. Peduncle bearing several umbels of cream-colored flowers, in 

 a terminal corymb. Fruit blue-black. Dry fields and pastures E. 



2. A. nudicaulis L. Wild Sarsaparilla. Perennial herb. Roots 

 very long, somewhat fleshy, aromatic ; stem very short or none. Leaf 

 solitary, from a sheathing laase, petioled, 6-12 in. long; compound in 

 threes, each division 3-5-pinnate ; leaflets oval or ovate, taper-pointed, 

 finely and sharply serrate, smooth above, often downy below. Scape 

 nearly as long as the petiole, usually bearing 3 short, peduncled 

 umbels. Flowers greenish. Styles distinct. Fruit globose, black. In 

 rich woods. 



73. UMBELLIFER.^;. Parsley Family 



Herbs, usually with hollow, grooved stems. Flowers small, 

 generally in umbels. Limb of the calyx either wanting or 

 present only as a 5-toothed rim or margin around the top of 

 the ovary. Petals 5. Stamens 5, inserted on the disk, which 

 is borne by the ovary (Fig. 26). Ovary 2-celled and 2-ovuled 

 (Fig. 26), ripening into 2 akene-like carpels, which separate 

 from each other. Each carpel bears 6 longitudinal ribs, in 

 the furrows between which secondary ribs frequently occur. 

 On a cross section of the fruit oil tubes are seen, traversing 

 the interspaces between the ribs, and near the surface of the 

 fruit (Fig. 26, D). The seeds contain a small embryo, inclosed 

 in considerable endosperm. [The family is a difficult one, 



