342 MEDICAL BOTANY. 



better corrective of the odour and taste of senna than any other aromatic. 

 It is more used to flavour confectionary than in medicine. 



Order 54.— ARALIACE^E.— Richard. 



Calyx adherent to the ovary. Pe'tals 5 — 10, inserted with the stamens on the top of 

 the ovary. Stamens equal in number to, rarely double the number of the petals. Ovary 

 crowaed with a disk, 2 — 15-celled. Styles erect, and connivent or spreading. Stigmas 

 simple. Fruit drupaceous or baccate, sometimes nearly dry, but the carpels adherent. 

 Seed solitary in each cell. Embryo short, at the base of the copious, fleshy albumen. 



This small order is closely allied to Apiacese, and differs from it chiefly in 

 having more than two cells in the ovary, in the greater number of styles, and 

 in the baccate character of the fruit. It consists of trees, shrubs, and peren- 

 nial herbs, with exstipulate, simple, or compound leaves, the petioles thick- 

 ened and dilated at base. The flowers are generally umbellate. The species 

 are found in various parts of the world, some of them in very high latitudes. 

 Their general qualities are those of stimulants and aromatics. Besides those 

 to be more particularly noticed, this order contains several plants possessed 

 of some interest ; thus the Dimorphantus edulis is used in China as a sudo- 

 rific, and its young shoots eaten as a delicate vegetable. Several species of 

 Gunnera are also possessed of some activity. The G. scabra affords an 

 astringent used for tanning, and its leaf-stalks are eaten. The leaves are very 

 large ; Mr. Darwin measured one, near Chiloe, which was nearly eight feet 

 in circumference. The fruit of G. macrocephala is considered, in Java, to 

 be a stimulant. Another species, found in Abyssinia, is stated, in Harris's 

 Ethiopia [Append, v.), to be much used for food in a raw state. The parts 

 used are the stalks and petioles ; their taste is similar to that of sorrel. 



Panax. — Linn. 

 Calyx 5-toothed. Corolla 5-petaled. Stamens 5. Styles 2. Fruit a 2-seeded berry. 



Most of the species are herbaceous, with perennial roots ; but a few are 

 shrubby, and differ so much from the type of the genus, that they may, per- 

 haps, be found wholly distinct. Some confusion exists with respect to the 

 herbaceous species, as they approach each other very closely in their cha- 

 racters. 



P. quinquefolium, Linn. — Root fusiform, sometimes branched. Leaflets 5 or 6 — 7, 

 petiolate, obovate, oblong, lateral ones smaller. Peduncle as long as the petioles. Styles 

 and cells of the ovary 2. 



Linn., Sp. PI. 1512 ; Torrey and Gray, Fl. i. 647 ; Bigelow, Med. Bot. 

 iii. 82 ; Barton, Veg. Mat. Med., ii. 191 ; Rafinesque, Med. Fl. ii. 52. 



Common Names. — Ginseng ; Red-berry ; Five-fingers, &c. 



Foreign Names. — Ginseng d'Amerique, Fr. ; Ginsang, It. ; Kraftwurzel, 

 Ger. 



Description. — Root fusiform, often branched, fleshy, with transverse wrinkles. Stem 

 erect, one to two feet high, round, green below, purplish-red above, divided at top into 

 three petioles, having a central peduncle at their base. The petioles are long, and 

 commonly are furnished with five, but sometimes with only three leaflets. These are ovate, 

 acuminate, doubly serrate, dark-green above, paler beneath, smooth on both sides, sup- 

 ported on partial footstalks, which, like the general ones, arc tinged with red at their 



