144 BOTANY. 
Orver 124. Araraces, the Ginseng Family. Calyx entire or toothed. 
Petals definite, two- to five- or ten-deciduous, occasionally 0; estivation 
valvate. Stamens, as many as the petals. or twice as many, inserted 
below the margin of an epigynous disk. Ovary adherent to the tube of 
the calyx, two- or more-celled ; ovules solitary, pendulous, anatropal; styles, 
two or more, distinct or connate; stigmas simple. Fruit usually succulent, 
two- to fifteen-celled, covered by the calycine limb. Seeds solitary, 
pendulous, adhering to the endocarp; albumen fleshy ; embryo ‘small ; 
radicle pointing to the hilum. Trees, shrubs, or herbaceous plants, with 
alternate, exstipulate leaves, and umbellate or capitate flowers. They are 
found both in tropical and in cold regions. Lindley enumerates 21 genera, 
including 160 species. Examples: Aralia, Panax, Adoxa, Hedera. The — 
fust three genera, with eight species, are the only North American. 
The plants of this order are allied to Umbelliferee, but do not possess 
poisonous qualities to any very marked degree. A species of Panax yields 
the Ginseng of the Chinese, for which a North American species, P. 
quinquefolium, serves as a substitute. An arborescent species, P. horridum, 
forms almost impenetrable thickets in Oregon. Aralia nudicaulis is used 
in the United States under the name of Sarsaparilla. The Ivy, Hedera 
helix, belongs to this order. 
Aralia nudicaulis, Sarsaparilla (not the true), United States (pl. 65, fig. 6) : 
a, a compound leaf; 6, flower branch; c, a flower-bud ; d, an open flower ; 
e, petal ; f, pistil; g, cross-section of ovary; h, ripe berry; 1, seed. 
Orper 125. Umpetuirera, the Umbelliferous Family. Calyx adherent 
to the ovary; the limb very small, five-toothed, or entire. Petals five, 
inserted on the outside of the epigynous disk, usually inflexed at the point, 
the inflexed portion cohering with the lamina; estivation somewhat 
imbricate, or rarely valvate. Stamens five, alternate with the petals, 
inflexed in estivation; anthers ovate, introrse. Ovary composed of two 
(very rarely more) united carpels, invested with the coherent calyx, two- 
celled. with a solitary suspended ovule in each cell: styles two, their bases 
dilated and thickened into a fleshy body (stylopodium), which covers the 
top of the ovary; stigmas simple. Fruit consisting of two dry carpels 
(often termed mericarps), which adhere by their faces (commissure) to a 
common axis (carpophore), at length separating from each other, and 
suspended from the summit of the carpophore, each carpel indehiscent, 
marked with five longitudinal primary ribs, one opposite each petal and 
each stamen, and often with five alternating secondary ones; in the 
substance of the pericarp are usually several longitudinal canals or 
receptacles (vitte), filled with a colored aromatic oil or turpentine, which 
are commonly lodged in the spaces (intervals) between the ribs, but 
sometimes opposite them. Seed anatropous, usually coherent with the 
carpel, rarely loose. Embryo minute at the base of the copious horny 
albumen. Herbs, or rarely suffrutescent plants: the stems usually fistular 
and furrowed. Leaves alternate (or very rarely opposite), usually pinnately 
or ternately divided; the petioles mostly dilated and sheathing at the base 
Flowers in umbels, usually with an involucre. 
144 
