14 PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



the leafets acuminate, sharp-serrate, ovate or cordate ; umbels 

 many, on large axillary panicles. 



This well-known plant is a native of our woods, and often cul- 

 tivated in our gardens ; flowers white and small, in umbels, on a 

 divided, somewhat panicled stem, with large leaves ; its height is 

 often four or five feet. The plant is slightly odorous ; the root 

 is highly aromatic, and formerly was used in a bruised state upon 

 wounds, and is still employed for some medicinal purposes. 

 Flowers in July and August. 



2. A. nudicaulis. L. Wild Sarsaparilla. Stalk, a foot or 

 more high, bears a leaf which becomes twice ternate, or simply 

 with 5 leafets, and a flower-stalk rising near the division, and 

 shorter than the leafets, which are sessile, smooth, serrate, oblong- 

 oval, and acute ; root creeping, thick, aromatic ; used by com- 

 mon people often in the composition of a medicinal beer. Flow- 

 ers are greenish, 3-umbelled, small. Widely spread over the 

 woods from Arctic America to Carolina, and westward to the 

 Rocky Mountains. 



3. A. hispida. Mx. Wild Elder. Stem is somewhat 

 woody, or plant partly shrubby, bristly and hispid leaves doubly 

 pinnate, with ovate and serrate smooth leafets ; bears many 

 umbels of flowers, greenish white, and the peduncles axillary 

 and terminal. Grows in dry or rocky woods, often three feet 

 high, and usually dying about half way down ; is found from 

 Virginia to Canada. It more commonly inhabits a light soil in 

 Berkshire County, upon land partially cleared, which has been 

 suffered to be overrun with briers and the like ; common, but 

 not abundant. 



Panax. L. 5. 2. 



Calyx slightly 5-toothed, superior ; corolla 5-petalled ; stamens 

 5, on the margin of the flower ; styles 2 or 3, and a berry 2 or 

 3-seeded ; polygamous, and the calyx of the staminate flower 

 entire. The meaning of the generic name is universal remedy, 

 from the supposed virtues of the first species. The Chinese have 

 written volumes upon the excellences of this plant ; and yet 



