FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS 201 
Fig. 175. Ginseng (Panax guinguefolia), After Britt & Brown, Ill. Fl. Northern U. S. 
is the dwarf ginseng or ground-nut (P. trifoliwm), a smooth herb only 
3-8 inches in height. The widely known English ivy (Hedera Heliz) is 
also a member of this family. It is a native of the Old World, but is 
now grown in many varieties in nearly all parts of the world. The 
celebrated rice paper of the Chinese is made from the pith of Fatsia 
papyrifera. Itis about 10 feet in height and 4 inches in diameter, with 
a white elder-like pith an inch or more in diameter. A number of other 
genera, as Acanthopanax, Polyscias, etc., are in ornamental cultivation. 
Family Umbelliferae. Carrot Family. A large, widely distributed 
family of 170 genera and about 1600 species. They are herbs, often 
strongly scented, with alternate, mostly compound leaves and small, 
often inconspicuous flowers borne usually in single or compound umbels. 
The calyx-tube is short, joined with the ovary and bears the 5 petals 
on its margin. The stamens are also 5, but borne on a disk which sur- 
rounds the pistil. The fruit is dry and composed of two flattened 
carpels. Although closely circumscribed as a family, the genera and, 
species are often limited and discriminated with great difficulty. 
This is on the whole an important family and supplies a number of 
edible plants, as the carrot, celery, parsnip, caraway, parsley and cori- 
ander; and in old gardens, lovage and fennel are grown for their sweet- 
aromatic foliage. Poison hemlock (Conium) water parsnip (Sium) and. 
water hemlock (Cicuta) are rank-growing, ill-scented poisonous plants, 
not infrequently causing the death of persons eating the roots or stems. 
Family Cornaceae. Dogwood Family. A small but interesting 
group of about 16 genera and 85 species. They are shrubs or trees with 
simple leaves and regular flowers in cymes, heads, or rarely solitary, and 
