Order 49. ARALIÀCEÆ. (Ginseng Family.)
Herbs, shrubs, or trees, with much the same characters as Umbelliferæ, but with usually more than 2 styles, and the fruit a few–several-celled drupe.—Albumen mostly fleshy. Petals not inflexed.
1. ARÀLIA, Tourn. Ginseng. Wild Sarsaparilla.
Flowers more or less polygamous. Calyx-tube coherent with the ovary, the teeth very short or almost obsolete. Petals 5, epigynous, oblong or obovate, lightly imbricated in the bud, deciduous. Stamens 5, epigynous, alternate with the petals. Styles 2–5, mostly distinct and slender, or in the sterile flowers short and united. Ovary 2–5-celled, with a single anatropous ovule suspended from the top of each cell, ripening into a berry-like drupe, with as many seeds as cells. Embryo minute.—Leaves compound or decompound. Flowers white or greenish, in umbels. Roots (perennial), bark, fruit, etc., warm and aromatic. (Derivation obscure.)
§ 1. ARALIA. Flowers monœciously polygamous or perfect, the umbels usually in corymbs or panicles; styles and cells of the (black or dark purple) fruit 5; stems herbaceous or woody; ultimate divisions of the leaves pinnate.
[*] Umbels numerous in a large compound panicle; leaves very large, decompound.
1. A. spinòsa, L. (Angelica-tree. Hercules' Club.) Shrub, or a low tree; the stout stem and stalks prickly; leaflets ovate, pointed, serrate, pale beneath.—River-banks, Penn. to Ind., and south to the Gulf. July, Aug.
2. A. racemòsa, L. (Spikenard.) Herbaceous; stem widely branched; leaflets heart-ovate, pointed, doubly serrate, slightly downy; umbels racemose; styles united.—Rich woodlands, N. Brunswick to Minn., south to the mountains of Ga. July. Well known for its spicy-aromatic large roots.
[*][*] Umbels 2–7, corymbed; stem short, somewhat woody.
3. A. híspida, Vent. (Bristly Sarsaparilla. Wild Elder.) Stem (1–2° high) bristly, leafy, terminating in a peduncle bearing several umbels; leaves twice pinnate; leaflets oblong-ovate, acute, cut-serrate.—Rocky and sandy places, Newf. to Dak., south to the mountains of N. C. June.