GINSENG FAMILY 



two feet. In the autumn these leaves turn to a peculiar 

 bronze red touched with yellow which makes the tree con- 

 spicuous and beautiful. 



The flowers are creamy white and ap- 

 pear in great, loose, flower clusters at the 

 very summit of the stem. You have 

 watched the tree all summer, June has 

 come and gone, July is well under way, 

 all other flowering trees are even now 

 maturing their fruit, when, suddenly, the 

 Hercules' Club shows signs of bloom and 

 sometimes in July, often in August and 

 even in September, the belated flowers 

 come forth. The blooming spray, like the 

 leaf, is enormous, sometimes rising three 

 or four feet above the spreading leaves. 

 Many of the flowers are sterile, so there is 

 no such generous production of fruit as 

 might be expected, but there is consider- 

 able. The little black drupes ripen quickly and hang in 

 clusters upon the tree all winter long, for their flesh is so 

 thin that they do not commend themselves to the birds. 



Hercules' Club, Aralia spi- 

 nosa. Drupes 3^' long. 



S68 



