GIXSE^v'G FAMILY. 



155 



keeled. Channels without oil-tubes. Seed curved in at top and bottom 

 Involucre 1-leaved or 0. Involucels dimidiate, about 3-leaved. Flowers 

 white, or tinged red before expanding. 



1. C. SATi'vuM, L. Leaves bipinnately dissected,— segments of the lower 



ones broad-cuneate, incised-dentate, — of the upper ones narrow and 



linear ; carpels hemispherical. 



Cultivated Coriandrum. Coriander. 



Fr. Coriandre. Germ. Der. Koriander. Span. Cilantro. 



Plant smooth. Root annual (sometimes biennial, DC). Stem 1-2 feet high, slender, 

 striate, somewhat branched at summit. Umbels 3-5-rayed. Umbdlets of numerous short 

 unequal rays. Carpels very concave on the face, cohering by their margins so as to form 

 apparently a simple globose fruit with 2 oil-tubes in a loose membrane, which covers the 

 inner face of the seed. 



Gardens : cultivated. Native of Tartary and the East. Fl. June -July. Fr. August- 

 September. 



Obs. Occasionally cultivated for its aromatic ^'ra/^. The odor of the 

 fresh herb is very offensive, notwithstanding which the Tartars are said 

 to prepare a favorite soup from it. 



Order XXXIY. AEALIA'CE^. (Ginseng Family.) 



Perennial herbs, shrubs or trees, with alternate, mostly compound leaves, destitute of 

 stipules, and mostly umbellate flowers — the umbels often paniculate. CaZ]/a; adherent to the 

 ovary,— the liinb usually very small, toothed or entire. 5, valvate in sestivation. 



Stamens EiS many as the petals and alternate with them. Oi-a;-?/ 3 -several united carpels' 



with a solitary suspended ovule inr each cell ; styles as many as the colls sometimes 



united. Fruit baccate or drupaceous, — sometimes nearly dry, but the carpels not sepa- 

 rating. 



A small Order, with much the same characters as Umbelliferse, but with usually more 

 than 2 styles, and the fruit a 3 -several-celled drupe. 



1. AEA'LIA, L. Wild Sarsaparilla. Ginseng. 



[Name of unknown derivation ; supposed to be of Canadian origin.] 



Flowers more or less polygamous. Calyx 5-toothed, teeth very short or 

 almost obsolete. Petals 5, spreading. Stamens 5, on short filaments. 

 Styles 2-5, mostly distinct and slender, or in the sterile flowers short 

 and united. Berry 2 - 5-celled with a single susi^ended seed in each cell, 

 somewhat 5-lobed. Herbs or shrubs,— sometimes prickly. Leaves mostly 

 decompound. Flowers white or greenish, in umbels. 

 ^ 1. Aralia. Flowers momnciously polygamous or perfect, the umbels 

 usually in corymbs or panicles ; styles or cells of the (black or dark purple) 

 fruit 5 ; stems herbaceous or woody ; ultimate divisions of the leaves pinnate. 



1. A. racemo'sa, L. Stem herbaceous, smooth, divaricately branched ; 

 leaves ternately and quinately decompound ; leaflets cordate-ovate, acu- 

 minate, doubly serrate ; racemes axillary, compound, paniculately um- 

 bellulate ; involucels small. 



Eacemose Aralia. Spikenard. 



liont thick, aromatic. SteniZ-h feet high, with spreading and somewhat dichotomous 

 brancue^^ Leaflets Z~<^ or S inches long, slightly hairy, mostly petiolulato. Flowers in 



