REPORT OF THE BOTANIST. 



129 



ing from within the tube of the corolla and standing out beyond it are 

 five stamens with small brownish oblong anthers, and proceeding from 

 the center there extends beyond them the slender yellowish pistil, ter- 

 minated by a small obtuse knob or stigma. All the external parts of 

 the flowers are softly pubescent. At the base of the llower is a small 

 swelling, which is the young ovary, and after the falling away of the 

 flowers this ovary develops into a capsule J to J of an inch in diameter, 

 with thin but firm walls, which is divided into two cells, and when ma- 

 ture opens at the top and allows the fall of the seeds, which are thin, 

 flat, winged, and closely packed in two rows. 



The tree belongs in the natural order Rubiacece* which order also con- 

 tains the genus Cinchona or the trees which furnish Peruvian bark, and 

 some botanists have thought that this tree might be a member of the 

 same genus, but there are diiferences in the structure of the flower and 

 the pod which are sufficient to separate it into a distinct genus. 



The bark seems to have analogous properties, is possessed of bitter 

 and febrifuge qualities, and is used medicinally for fevers by the in- 

 habitants of the country. The tree was first described by the elder 

 Michaux, who collected it on Saint Mary's River in Georgia, in the vear 

 1791. 



It received the generic name of Pincftneya, in honor of General Charles 

 C. Pinckney, of South Carolina, a gentleman who interested himself 

 much in regard to the botany of his country. The tree grows in moist 

 situations near the coast, from South Carolina to Florida. The flowers 

 are developed in the month of June. Plate VIII. 



Aralia qutnquefolia — Ginseng. 



A low, perennial, herbaceous plant growing in rich woods in mount- 

 ainous regions of the eastern portion of the United States. The stem 

 rises from a tuberous root ; it is naked and unbranched for 10 to 15 

 inches, when it terminates in a cluster of about 3 leaf stalks and a cen- 

 tral peduncle or flower stalk. The leaf stalks or petioles are 3 or 4 

 inches long, and give rise at the end in an umbellate form to 5 to 7 

 leaflets, which are short-stalked and of unequal size, three of them being 

 larger than the others, mostly obvate or oblong, in form thin, smooth, 

 sharp-toothed, long-pointed, and 3 to 5 inches long ; the other two to four 

 of each stalk are much smaller and more irregular in form. The flower 

 peduncle varies in length from 2 to 5 inches, and at the extremity termi- 

 nates in a roundish cluster or umbel of small, short-stalked flowers, 

 twenty to fifty in number, intermixed with short and narrow leaf- like 

 scales. The individual flowers are small, but possessing all the usual 

 parts of calyx, corolla, stamens, and pistils. The calyx is adherent to 

 the ovary and surmounts it with five small teeth. The corolla is made 

 up of five small oval white petals, which soon fall away. The flowers are 

 not all perfect, some of them containing only stamens, others stamens 

 and pistils. In the perfect flowers there are five stamens with small 

 heart-shaped anthers, and usually two, sometimes three, persistent, out- 

 wardly curved styles. The ovaries finally expand into small, round, 

 bright-red berries about the size of small peas. 



The root is tuberous, 3 or 4 inches long, and usually dividing into two or 

 three tap-shaped portions. It is wrinkled by parallel transverse rid ges, 

 and gives rise irregularly to a number of fibrous rootlets. The upper 

 portion of the root-stalk shows several angular scars, the vestiges of pre- 

 vious stems which annually die to the ground, and are replaced by a 

 new growth the following year. These tubers are generally buried sev- 

 9 A— >84 



