204 GINSENG FAMILY. 



pound, and the divisions with 5-7 pinnate leaflets, which are ovate and 

 cut-serrate ; petioles with large, inflated, membranaceous base ; flowers 

 greenish-white ; fruit smooth and thin- winged. 



A. hirsuta, Muhl. Dry ground, commoner S. ; stem 2°-5° high, 

 rather slender, downy at top, as are the umbels and broadly winged 

 fruits ; leaflets thickish, ovate-oblong, serrate ; flowers bright white. 



15. HERACLETJM, COW PARSNIP. (Named after Hercules.) 

 Flowers summer. % 



H. lanatum, Michx. Damp rich ground N. ; very stout, 4°-8° high, 

 woolly-hairy when young, unpleasantly strong-scented, with large cut 

 and toothed or lobed leaflets, some of them heart-shaped at base, and 

 broad umbels with white flowers and large fruits. 



16. PASTINACA, PARSNIP. (Latin name from pastus, food.) 



P. sativa, Linn. Common P. Run wild in low meadows, and then 

 rather poisonous ; cult, from Eu. for the esculent strong-scented root. 

 Tall, smooth, with grooved stem, coarse and cut-toothed or lobed leaflets, 

 and umbels of small yellow flowers. ® ® 



LV. ARALIACEJ!, GINSENG- FAMILY. 



Like the foregoing family, but often shrubs or trees, usually 

 more than two styles and cells to the ovary and fruit, the 

 latter a berry or drupe. Besides a few choice and uncommon 

 shrubby house plants, represented only by the two following 

 genera. The flowers in both are more or less polygamous, and 

 the lobes or margin of the calyx very short or none. Petals 

 and stamens 5. 



1. ARALIA. Flowers in simple or panicled umbels, white or greenish ; the petals lightly 



overlapping in the bud. Styles 2-5, separate to the base, except in sterile flowers. 

 Leaves compound or decompound. Root, bark, fruit, etc., warm-aromatic or pungent. 



2. HEDEKA. Flowers in panicled or clustered umbels, greenish ; petals valvate in the 



bud. Ovary 5-celled ; the 5 styles united into a conical column. Leaves simple, 

 palmately 8-5-lobed or angled. Woody stems climbing by rootlets. 



1. ARALIA. (Derivation obscure.) 2/ 



§ 1. Wild Sarsaparilla, etc. Flowers perfect or polygamous with both 

 fertile and sterile on the same plant ; umbels more than one ; fruit black 

 or dark purple, spicy ; seeds or cells and styles 5. 



* Large and leafy-stemmed, with very compound leaves sometimes 2° or 

 3° across and with many umbels in a large compound panicle ; flowers 

 in summer. 



A. spindsa, Linn. Angelica Tree, Hercules' Club. River banks 

 from Penn. S., and planted ; a shrub or low tree, of peculiar aspect, the 

 simple stout trunk rising 6°-20° high and beset with large prickles, bearing 

 immense leaves with ovate serrate leaflets and oorymbed orpanicled umbels. 



A. racemdsa, Linn. Spikenard. Woodlands in rich soil, with her- 

 baceous stems 3°-5° high, from a thick aromatic root, not prickly, widely k 

 spreading branches, heart-ovate leaflets doubly serrate and slightly downy, 

 and racemed-panicled umbels. 



